Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey opens in theaters one year from this Thursday—on July 17, 2026—and something big might be coming to celebrate. Showtimes (just showtimes, not a way to actually buy tickets) for select IMAX 70mm screenings of the film have begun to show up on ticketing websites, which is odd because a) It’s over a year in advance, b) Nolan is still making the movie, which means c) there isn’t a locked-in runtime yet.
And yet, if you head over to a site like Fandango, there they are. Showtimes. Sitting there. Staring at you. Teasing that you might have to buy tickets a year in advance if you want to see this movie in IMAX 70mm on opening weekend, which would be completely unprecedented. (In some cases, showtimes can be viewed on an app and not a browser, but they’re there. Here’s a screenshot.)
So what’s the deal? io9 reached out to Universal, Fandango, and IMAX for any comment or clarification on this and has yet to hear back as of publication. We’ll update this post if, or when, we hear back. But it is worth noting that Universal did release that teaser trailer for the film in theaters over a year in advance. And with that one-year countdown looming on the 17th, you can imagine that might mean the trailer makes it online, and tickets will go on sale for the film’s preferred format as the start of a mega media blitz.
That’s because, in case you missed it, The Odyssey is doing something no film has done before. It’s the first feature-length Hollywood production to be entirely filmed with IMAX 70mm cameras. It’s a format that fans can only see in a handful of theaters at the moment, with more currently under construction with the plan to be open in time for The Odyssey. That means everyone expects demand to see the film in the format to be completely insane, to the point where maybe it warrants starting to sell tickets a year in advance, even without a defined runtime.
But movie tickets a year in advance? Usually a month, maybe two or three, is the max for something really, really big. But a year? With the film not even close to finished? If anyone can do it, it’s Christopher Nolan. Hopefully we learn more in the coming days, but if you are a Nolan head, it’s best to start looking at your local theaters now.
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