It’s strange to see people waiting in line for movies the same way they used to wait in line for concert tickets. Since July 17, when Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” opened, that’s what you’ve seen outside of AMC theaters. It changed what a movie release could look like in 2026, first quietly and then very loudly.
On July 27, AMC Theaters said that The Odyssey’s first two weekends were the most successful IMAX runs in the company’s history. In its first weekend in the United States, the movie made about $124.5 million. It made $87 million in its second weekend. In this case, those aren’t just good numbers. Those numbers stop people who work in the field in the middle of a sentence.
What makes this feel different from other box office hits is the reason for it. The Odyssey is the first full-length movie that was shot entirely with IMAX cameras. More specifically, the Keighley, a new generation of IMAX film cameras that Nolan and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema worked on together. Two and a half million feet of IMAX film were made. That’s not a footnote for details. It turns out that audiences can really feel that kind of creative commitment.
The IMAX 70mm presentation, which is only shown in 41 places around the world, has made an almost unbelievable $412,000 per screen at the global box office. Those 70mm screens made an average of $153,000 each just on the first weekend. To keep up with demand, the AMC Lincoln Square 13 in New York showed IMAX 70mm movies 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Still, many showings are full until the middle of August, and some dates are already full for September.
In just 10 days, The Odyssey made more than $100 million in IMAX theaters around the world. It was the second-fastest movie in IMAX history to reach that goal. As of July 27, the movie had made $140 million at the IMAX theaters around the world, which is about 21.9% of its total worldwide gross. 443 IMAX screens in North America made $24 million in ticket sales over the second weekend alone, which is 27.7% of the market. The drop from the first weekend to the second was only 8%. Not often do you get that kind of hold. It sounds like word of mouth, not just opening day hype.
AMC runs more IMAX theaters in North America than any other company, including about half of all IMAX screens in the US. Right now, that position is very important. The chain is working with Universal Pictures and IMAX to add more 70mm showtimes where it is possible to do so. It seems like even AMC didn’t fully see how big what was going to happen would be, and they are now scrambling in a good way to meet it.
Adam Aron, Chairman and CEO of AMC, gave direct credit to the filmmakers. “Christopher Nolan, his cast and crew, and Universal Pictures have made a brilliant cinematic event,” he said in a statement from the company. There’s a lot of box office behind it, even though it sounds like standard executive language.
What this moment really shows is something that the industry has been carefully debating for years: a lot of people will come back when the experience itself makes it worth leaving the house. That’s not something every movie can say. A lot of them don’t even try. People do notice, though, when a director makes a movie just for the biggest screen possible, not as a way to make more money, but because they want to. It looks like they buy tickets weeks ahead of time to prove it.
It’s still not clear if The Odyssey marks a long-lasting shift or a peak built around one director’s unique style. Nolan has built trust with his audiences in a way that other directors don’t always get. But for AMC, the records have been changed no matter what. This is the new standard, no matter what comes next.
