Demand for Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” surged after tickets went on sale Thursday, with premium IMAX 70mm seats for the film’s July 17 opening weekend quickly appearing on secondary markets such as eBay for as much as $500 to $1,000, especially for screenings in New York, Texas, Florida and Arizona. The rush to buy tickets also coincided with technical strain on major ticketing platforms. AMC paused its queue within the first half hour of the drop as traffic spiked, while users reported outages and purchase errors on AMC and Fandango. Downdetector showed a sharp increase in complaints shortly after sales began, and some buyers faced wait times of more than an hour before the systems appeared to return to normal.
The frenzy reflects the unusually high demand for IMAX 70mm presentations, a format prized by film fans for its larger image size and higher resolution than standard 35mm film. “The Odyssey” is also notable as the first feature film reportedly shot entirely with IMAX cameras, allowing it to retain a consistent aspect ratio throughout the movie rather than switching between formats. Nolan has long promoted IMAX screenings as the ideal way to experience his films, helping fuel the scarcity and premium pricing around these showings.
Ticket scalping has become common for major event-style movie releases, especially those with intense fan anticipation. Similar resale activity previously followed the launches of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in 2021, “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019 and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” in 2015, when tickets also surfaced on platforms like eBay, Craigslist and StubHub. Nolan’s latest film arrives with extraordinary expectations after the success of “Oppenheimer,” which grossed $975 million worldwide and won seven Oscars from 13 nominations at the 2024 Academy Awards.
“The Odyssey” is already being discussed as a major awards contender, with a cast that includes Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson and Zendaya. Its combination of blockbuster scale, prestige filmmaking and limited-format screenings has helped turn the ticket release into an event of its own, driving both site congestion and a fast-growing resale market.
