The only thing that should stop the IMAX 70mm run of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is Dune: Part Three.
At least that’s the perspective of The Bulwark’s culture editor, Sonny Bunch, who wants to see The Odyssey in IMAX 70mm venues — 41 auditoriums worldwide, including New York’s AMC Lincoln Square and TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles — until December.
“You’re just printing money, and it’s insane to me that they were just gonna put a stop to it,” Sonny says, referencing the initial release plans for The Odyssey — which didn’t include the IMAX 70mm showings that are now scheduled through mid-September. “I’m glad they’re keeping it going. The Odyssey is a rare thing. It’s an actual event — it’s bringing people to the theater who might not otherwise go there — for the good of the entire industry.”
The IMAX numbers for The Odyssey have been remarkable even for Nolan, the unofficial patron saint of the format. The Universal release is now the biggest IMAX movie ever at $289 million globally (by comparison, 2009’s Avatar did $271 million lifetime in IMAX, not adjusted for inflation). Those IMAX 70mm screens account for $37.5 million of the overall total (13 percent). All told, The Odyssey has earned $147 million in North American IMAX revenue so far — meaning it could very well gross more in North America in IMAX than Nolan’s Oppenheimer grossed globally in the screen format (about $195 million).
“Keep IMAX 70mm screens exclusive for The Odyssey as long as possible,” says Sonny. “A Christopher Nolan movie, a Denis Villeneuve movie like Dune: Part Three, a Ryan Coogler movie like Sinners; those, you just keep playing them as long as they’ll play.”
But The Odyssey isn’t the only billion-dollar success story this summer. With another $145 million in North America this weekend, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is up to over $1.6 billion worldwide.
“It has a very good shot at overtaking Avatar: The Way of Water for the highest-grossing film of the 2020s, not adjusted for inflation,” says Sean McNulty.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is days away from becoming the highest-grossing Spider-Man movie ever, besting even the $1.9 billion global gross of Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021.
“Brand New Day will probably be at $1.7 billion globally by the time we finish this conversation,” says Sean.
The dominance of Spider-Man and The Odyssey has been so pronounced that even new releases, like Universal’s comedy One Night Only, have found it tough to hang. The Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner romantic comedy about the one night a year when premarital sex is allowed for singles (a high concept if there ever was one!) opened in third place with just $5.7 million.
“I was going to see One Night Only last night at my local AMC, where I have an A-List membership. I went to the app, and they had canceled all the screenings,” Sonny says. “They replaced it with either The Odyssey or Spider-Man, because those are the only two movies that are making tons and tons of money right now.” (Don’t worry, Sonny saw it at another theater.)
