The BFI IMAX has announced that it sold over 28,000 tickets for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey in the 24 hours that they were on sale, for a total gross of £750,000.

This breaks the previous BFI IMAX record, held by Dune: Part Two , which took £366,000 gross in the first 24 hours on sale, with Nolan’s previous Best Picture-winning film Oppenheimer following behind, with a gross take of £254,000 in the same timeframe.

This follows on from the chaos caused when tickets went on sale in U.S. cinemas earlier in the month, where it was difficult to access some cinema chain websites, such as AMC, among others.

Tickets also went on sale for The Odyssey at the London Science Museum IMAX, which is also showing the film in Nolan’s preferred IMAX 1570 format.

However, most of the demand from enthusiasts was to see the film in its opening week at the BFI IMAX, which, when showing IMAX 1.43:1 film, is the largest cinema screen in the UK.

The frenzy for tickets was evident for those in the Cinema Vanguard WhatsApp community, with many members expressing frustration at the difficulty accessing the website. As with previous high-demand presentations, such as Dune: Part Two, the expectation was that a waiting room would be put in place, with everyone joining a randomized queue at the appointed 9 am on-sale time.

However, this proved not to be the case, with everyone placed straight into a queue immediately, with no waiting room. Some who joined early were even kicked off and forced to go to the back of the online queue, forcing the BFI to issue a statement on X , apologizing for the various issues.

From the perspective of IMAX and Universal, the film’s distributor, the hype machine has been an unqualified success. Since the success of Oppenheimer, the hype for seeing films captured and projected on IMAX 1570 has reached fever pitch, and with only 40 locations worldwide capable of presenting the film in this way, the FOMO factor has reached unprecedented proportions.

While the best seats have likely been taken, the BFI IMAX and the London Science Museum have showings of The Odyssey , in IMAX 70mm running from its 17 th July release date up until 9 th August. In addition, the Vue Printworks in Manchester, UK, is also showing the film in IMAX 70mm, with showings listed up to 30 th July.

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