Robert Pattinson as Antinous in 'The Odyssey' Melinda Sue Gordon/© Universal Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection And so continues The Odyssey‘s record-breaking debut: The British Film Institute’s Imax theater, the U.K.’s largest screen, has had its best-ever opening weekend at the box office.
The BFI Imax was the number one Imax venue in both the U.K. and international markets from July 17-19 as Christopher Nolan‘s three-hour epic — shot entirely with Imax cameras — finally released.
The three-day gross came in at £219,867 ($296,147) from a single screen, the biggest opening weekend box office result of any Imax venue in the U.K. and abroad. This performance places The Odyssey at the top of the all-time BFI Imax opening weekend box office rankings, surpassing Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), which previously held the record with a three-day gross of £216,454. Oppenheimer (2023), Nolan’s last movie, now ranks third, having achieved an opening weekend gross of £207,677.
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To date, BFI Imax has sold more than 82,000 admissions for The Odyssey, generating £2,169,882 ($2.9m) gross in ticket sales and achieving a 94 percent occupancy rate across all showtimes currently on sale, already becoming the venue’s third-highest-grossing film ever.
Across eight weeks, 173 consecutive Imax 70mm screenings have sold out entirely, with audience members traveling to London from as far afield as Singapore, Los Angeles and Toronto to see the film. Additional dates are expected to be added in response to unprecedented global demand, the BFI IMAX said 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.”
BFI Fellow Christopher Nolan introduced the film’s first showing on Friday. Read The Hollywood Reporter‘s review of the spectacle here, or interviews with standout star Samantha Morton, Odysseus’ right-hand man Himesh Patel, as well as John Leguizamo and THR cover star Jon Bernthal.
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