Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey has broken the all-time opening weekend box office record at the British Film Institute's Imax theater in London, the largest screen in the United Kingdom.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the three-day gross came in at £219,867, equivalent to roughly $296,147, from a single screen during the July 17-19 weekend. That figure tops the previous record held by Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which earned £216,454 over its opening weekend in 2017. Nolan's own Oppenheimer now ranks third on the all-time list with an opening weekend of £207,677.
The BFI Imax was the number one Imax venue in both the U.K. and international markets for that three-day stretch. The Odyssey was shot entirely with Imax cameras, and the BFI is the only cinema in the U.K. to screen the film in Imax 70mm.
The numbers go well beyond the opening weekend alone. To date, the BFI Imax has sold more than 82,000 admissions for The Odyssey, generating £2,169,882 in ticket sales. The venue has achieved a 94 percent occupancy rate across all showtimes currently on sale, making it the third-highest-grossing film in the venue's history. Across eight weeks, 173 consecutive Imax 70mm screenings have sold out entirely.
The demand has drawn audiences from far outside the United Kingdom. Audience members have traveled to London from Singapore, Los Angeles, and Toronto to see the film. Additional screening dates are expected to be added, the BFI Imax announced Monday.
"As the only cinema in the U.K. to hold a complete archive of Christopher Nolan's Imax 70mm filmography, now including The Odyssey, we are proud to be the home of Christopher Nolan on film," said BFI Imax program manager Madeleine Mullett. "Across the BFI, our commitment to preserving and celebrating celluloid, alongside the filmmakers who continue to champion this format, speaks to the enduring power of storytelling and the unique communal experience of seeing film on film. The extraordinary demand for our Imax 70mm presentation of The Odyssey, experienced as intended by the filmmakers, is ultimate proof of the appetite audiences have for cinema at its most authentic."
The Odyssey runs three hours and stars Samantha Morton, Himesh Patel, John Leguizamo, and Jon Bernthal, among others.
