Demand for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film “The Odyssey” overwhelmed ticketing platforms on Thursday afternoon, causing extensive crashes across AMC and Fandango. With fans scrambling to secure seats for the July 17 opening weekend, scalpers immediately flooded secondary markets, pushing asking prices for premium showings up to $1,000.
IMAX 70mm tickets are the primary target for these extreme markups. The most expensive listings currently focus on opening weekend screenings in New York, Texas, Florida, and Arizona following the Thursday site disruptions across the major theater chains.
The $250 million production stars Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Anne Hathaway. Nolan insisted on shooting the entire feature with IMAX 70mm cameras, turning these specific large-format theater screenings into highly coveted, scarce events.
Expectations are running extremely high following the director’s 2023 release “Oppenheimer,” which generated nearly $1 billion globally and faced a similar scarcity for its own 70mm prints. The intense secondary market chaos for this upcoming release mirrors the aggressive presale environments previously seen for blockbuster franchise installments like “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in 2021 and “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019.