It’s the wee hours of Sunday morning, and while most of Manhattan’s Upper West Side neighborhood is tucked into bed, there’s a steady stream of excited people heading into AMC Lincoln Square 13. The outfits vary, from pajamas to themed headbands to dress
shirts wrinkled from a day spent out on the town. So do the ticket holders — couples and siblings, friend groups and solo visitors. But the objective for the mass of people winding up the theater’s escalator is the same: watching director Christopher Nolan’s new film The Odyssey in IMAX 70 mm by any means necessary. And here, those means required a 2 a.m. wakeup call.
“It’s been a bloodbath trying to get tickets,” sisters Morgan and Haley tell Rolling Stone. “We were willing to stay up as late as we needed to.”
They’re not alone. While The Odyssey premiered just a little over 24 hours earlier, on July 17, demand for Nolan’s 13th film has remained astronomically high since tickets first went on sale in June. Clamoring fans caused the AMC, Fandango, and IMAX apps to crash for hours, and created hour-long queues on ticket-sales sites.
The $250 million project translates the classic Greek text into a sweeping theatrical experience, complete with a cast of Hollywood heavy hitters like Matt Damon, Himesh Patel, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong’o, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, Elliot Page, and Charlize Theron. But much of the hype centers around Nolan’s directorial feat — shooting the entire film on IMAX 70 mm cameras. There are only 25 movie theaters in the U.S. that can show the specialized format, leaving Odyssey audiences forced to choose between finding an IMAX theater or watching the film with a third of the original material lopped off the borders. Nolan intended for people to watch the film in IMAX. These moviegoers made it a mission.
Nelson Aldama isn’t afraid of falling asleep as he heads into AMC Lincoln Square 13. He watched a World Cup game with friends and went to a WWE wrestling match at Madison Square Garden before making his way to the theater.
“I’m literally shaking,” he says, extending his hands in front of him. “I want to see everything that was captured. I want to see the background actors, I want to see the environments. I want to see the props. Top to bottom, I want to see everything.”
Pearl and Yitzy Leonorowitz agree. “We’re big Christopher Nolan fans and the opportunity to see it in IMAX 70 mm, the way it was intended to be seen, is just unmatched, and we needed to experience it,” Yitzy says. “Even if it was at 3 a.m.,” Pearl adds.
Daniel Sahi, 18, already had hard-won tickets for an Odyssey showing next week. But after scrolling through this movie app, he realized that a last-minute cancellation had opened a single seat for the 3 a.m. showing. “I’ve seen multiple films in 70mm and I’ve loved every experience,” he says. “I saw the Sinners re-release here and it was fantastic. This film is fully in IMAX 70mm and that is just insane to me. [Nolan] is one of the most talented modern directors out there.”
A group of friends tells Rolling Stone they purchased their tickets on the resale website eBay for $80 each. Afraid they would get scammed the night of, they had one member of the group visit the theater in person to have a worker physically print out their tickets. “The 3 a.m. is the best screening to go to because every single person here that’s seeing this is a true cinema lover,” one of the friends says.
This intense interest from fans in The Odyssey — not just watching the film but going out of their way to see it, often multiple times, in Nolan’s preferred format — flies directly in the face of the conservative backlash the film received before its release. (Conservative and boosted accounts on X, including owner Elon Musk,criticized Nolanfor casting Nyong’o, a Black woman, as Helen of Troy.) But the turnout for this 3 a.m. screening and others around the country shows a clear demand for filmmaking with a distinct point of view.
In fact, the reigning goal for Nolan fans seems to be getting their butts in theater seats — whatever it takes. Scott, a 3 a.m. screening ticket holder, told Rolling Stone he planned a visit from Canada in the hopes of snagging a ticket. Alinne, who was booked on a 7 a.m. train to upstate Ithaca, New York, said she picked the screening because she’d rather be tired than miss out. Another couple said they traveled from Wilmington, Delaware, after failing to get tickets near home.
Tomas, who arrived at the theater with a Red Bull in hand, says the showing will be his second time watching the film in 24 hours. “It’s a must-do,” he says. “Christopher Nolan on the biggest screen in America. Why not?”
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