Ticket sales for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey broke records on their first day. According to Deadline, sources say the premium large format presales at AMC on Thursday were the highest the chain had seen for any major studio title in four years.
The record applies to PLF formats only at this stage. Those include IMAX at AMC, Dolby Cinema at AMC, and Prime at AMC auditoriums. Standard showtime tickets are expected to go on sale later this month.
To put the numbers in context, The Odyssey's first-day PLF sales also topped all first-day presales for any major studio release at AMC year to date, across all formats. The only titles that generated higher first-day sales at AMC were the Taylor Swift and Beyonce concert films, which were distributed directly by AMC Theatres Distribution.
Wait times on AMC's ticketing website stretched as long as an hour on Thursday before dropping to around eight minutes. Competing chains Regal and Cinemark did not report similar wait times for the same film.
Universal had already made headlines last summer when it put 70mm and IMAX 70mm tickets on sale a full year ahead of the release date. Those sold out. More than 6 million seats remain available across IMAX, Dolby Cinema, and Prime auditoriums at AMC locations. Tickets for standard showtimes will add millions more seats when they go on sale later this month.
The Odyssey opens July 20. The film stars Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong'o, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Charlize Theron, and Robert Pattinson, among others. It is Nolan's first project since Oppenheimer, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2024 and earned Cillian Murphy the Oscar for Best Actor. Emma Thomas produces alongside Nolan.
Nolan shot the film in IMAX format. AMC has confirmed a three-week hold on large format auditoriums for the film's opening run.
