The Odyssey: IMAX Glory Meets the Three-Hour Chair Test

Lede

The Odyssey proves cinemas can still fill every seat, provided Hollywood spends $250 million making the screen impossible to ignore.

Hermit Off Script

There are only a few films nowadays that can fill a cinema auditorium almost to its limit. I could probably count them on one hand, and The Odyssey is now one of them. Some films manage it through the director’s name, an enormous cast and enough publicity to make hiding from the trailer a minor Olympic event. Others grow through word of mouth, as Obsession did from what I saw. There is no real competition between them as films because each succeeds in its own way. Relative to budget, marketing and eventual profit, however, the numbers can make a useful statement.
I barely managed to find a suitable seat for The Odyssey because the IMAX screening was almost full. This is precisely why I’ve said that every cinema auditorium should offer something closer to IMAX image quality, sound and comfort. Ordinary screens are competing with large televisions, streaming libraries and sofas that don’t charge extra for legroom. Yet cinemas may be taking one of their final long breaths, so operators are unlikely to rebuild every room just as audiences are deciding whether to leave the house.
On IMAX, the film is glorious. The picture fills your vision, the sound blows through the chair, and the whole room feels briefly justified. The film was shot entirely with IMAX film cameras, and the promotion made sure that even people who couldn’t explain the format knew they were supposed to want it.
For some reason, though, I don’t think I’ll feel the need to watch it again. Probably not even on streaming, although I may change my mind. Other large films have pulled me back more than once – Avatar, The Matrix, Star Wars and Dune, to name a few. I even recently revisited Predator: Badlands. The Odyssey impressed me, but it didn’t leave that same immediate hunger for another journey.
The crowds are partly a victory for the film and partly a victory for marketing. Christopher Nolan’s name, the cast, the trailers and the claim that the whole production was built for IMAX turned a cinema ticket into an appointment. It worked. The film opened with about $264 million worldwide, so the queue was not merely living inside my local cinema.
Overall, The Odyssey is a must-see in the cinema, preferably in IMAX. Perhaps I’ll watch it again at home one day, where the screen will be smaller but the pause button will understand human anatomy. Even the best action film becomes a physical endurance test when it lasts 172 minutes and the chair refuses to become a bed.
The spectacle filled the screen. My back merely survived it.

The Odyssey | Official New Trailer

The Odyssey: IMAX Glory Meets the Three-Hour Chair Test

After the Trojan War, Odysseus begins a dangerous voyage home to Ithaca. Across hostile seas, he faces the Cyclops, the Sirens, Calypso and other forces determined to prevent his return. Christopher Nolan adapts Homer’s epic as a mythological action adventure filmed entirely with IMAX film cameras.

Cast and credits

Director: Christopher Nolan
Writers: Christopher Nolan, based on Homer’s The Odyssey
Genre: Epic fantasy, adventure, action
Main cast: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya and Charlize Theron
Composer: Ludwig Goransson
Production company/studio: Universal Pictures and Syncopy
Runtime: 172 minutes
Release year and platform: 2026, released theatrically and in IMAX

What does not make sense

• Cinemas keep asking why audiences stay home while reserving their best sound, screens and seats for a small number of premium rooms.
• A film marketed as the reason to return to cinemas also demonstrates how ordinary auditoriums have been allowed to feel ordinary.
• The industry treats nearly 3 hours without a proper break as artistic commitment rather than a negotiation with the human spine.
• IMAX scarcity creates excitement, but it also turns the best version of the film into a geographical and financial privilege.
• A $250 million production can fill rooms, but that doesn’t prove the general cinema business is healthy. It proves Christopher Nolan can still summon a crowd.
• Marketing tells us the format is essential, then most viewers are offered screens that cannot show the rarest 70 mm version.

Sense check / The numbers

1. The Odyssey runs for 172 minutes, or 2 hours and 52 minutes, making it 8 minutes shorter than Oppenheimer. [IMDb]
2. The film opened with approximately $264.1 million worldwide, including $124.5 million in North America. Its reported production budget was about $250 million. [Associated Press, Guardian]
3. IMAX reported a $52 million global opening for the film. Only 41 venues worldwide could present the IMAX 70 mm film version, which earned $6.3 million during the opening weekend. [IMAX]
4. The film was shot entirely with IMAX film cameras, making it the first feature-length production completed that way. [IMAX, Universal Pictures]
5. UK cinemas recorded 123.5 million admissions in 2025, 2 per cent fewer than in 2024 and around 30 per cent below the 2019 level. The Odyssey can fill a room, but one epic cannot carry an entire industry home. [BFI]

The sketch

Scene 1: The last suitable seat

An almost-full IMAX auditorium contains one remaining seat directly beneath the screen. A small customer stands in the aisle holding an enormous ticket.

Dialogue:
Customer: “Any better seats?”
Cinema: “Come back to Ithaca.”
Screen: “Bow before row A.”

Scene 2: The native format

A giant IMAX camera sits on a throne while several smaller cinema screens queue outside behind a velvet rope.

Dialogue:
Marketing: “Made for every audience.”
Small Screen: “May I show it?”
IMAX Camera: “Technically.”

Scene 3: The final voyage

Odysseus reaches Ithaca while a cinema customer remains trapped in a chair, staring towards a distant toilet sign.

Dialogue:
Odysseus: “Ten years to return.”
Customer: “Only 172 minutes.”
Spine: “Felt similar.”

What to watch, not the show

• Whether premium formats become the cinema industry’s main product rather than an expensive side room.
• Whether studios increasingly sell the filming format alongside the story.
• Whether ticket prices and limited premium seating turn major releases into luxury appointments.
• Whether cinemas improve ordinary auditoriums or simply use IMAX to expose how neglected they are.
• Whether long runtimes continue because streaming has weakened the old pressure to fit more screenings into one day.
• Whether rare theatrical events rebuild regular cinema habits or merely create several crowded weekends each year.
• Whether Hollywood can reproduce Nolan-sized demand without Nolan-sized budgets, names and publicity.

The Hermit take

Watch The Odyssey in IMAX because this is exactly where its scale belongs.
Just don’t confuse one packed auditorium with cinema receiving eternal life.

Keep or toss

Keep.

Keep the IMAX spectacle, the physical ambition and the rare feeling of a full cinema. Toss the belief that every epic needs to test the bladder as thoroughly as the imagination.

Sources

• Universal Pictures official trailer and release information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzw2ttJD2qQ
• IMAX 70 mm release information: https://www.imax.com/news/the-odyssey-in-imax-70mm-film
• IMAX opening-weekend results: https://investors.imax.com/news-releases/news-release-details/christopher-nolans-odyssey-delivers-record-breaking-52-million/
• Associated Press opening box-office report: https://abcnews.com/Business/wireStory/nolans-odyssey-storms-box-office-2641-million-global-134894762
• Guardian global box-office report: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jul/20/the-odyssey-box-office
• IMDb film details and runtime: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33764258/
• BFI 2025 UK cinema statistics: https://www.bfi.org.uk/news/official-bfi-statistics-2025