Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, a day ahead of its American release, and nowhere is the scramble for seats wilder than Melbourne, where the only cinema in the Southern Hemisphere screening it on IMAX 70mm film sold more than 17,000 tickets in its first day of sales.
IMAX Melbourne says those tickets, worth more than $800,000, moved at a peak rate of over 100 a minute. The venue is one of just 41 worldwide equipped for the format Nolan shot the film in, and its 1.43:1 screen is the largest of its kind anywhere. The print itself runs 17 kilometres of film, and only five people in Australia are qualified to thread an IMAX 70mm projector. The first session ran at one minute past midnight on Thursday.
“This is the biggest image of the film anywhere on earth, on the largest screen of its kind in the world," IMAX Melbourne general manager Jeremy Fee said.”
The 70mm scarcity has produced its own economy. Yahoo Entertainment reports overseas fans flying to Melbourne for the format, and sold-out sessions in the US resold for as much as US$500. Sydney audiences can see the film in digital IMAX at Darling Harbour or on standard 70mm film at the Hayden Orpheum in Cremorne, which is running it alongside the general release.
The film arrives with the best reviews of Nolan's career. It debuted at 98 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes from its first 163 reviews, ahead of the 94 per cent held by both Memento and The Dark Knight, and sits at 96 per cent from 264 reviews. The US$250 million Universal production is the first commercial feature shot entirely on IMAX film cameras, runs two hours and 53 minutes, and puts Matt Damon's Odysseus at the head of a cast that takes in Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson and Charlize Theron.
The early money is following the reviews. Deadline estimates Thursday previews in the US at about US$15 million, the best for any live-action film this year and Nolan's third-biggest preview night behind The Dark Knight Rises and The Dark Knight, and forecasts a global debut above US$200 million. Variety projects a US opening near US$100 million, which would be Nolan's biggest since The Dark Knight Rises in 2012.
Australian box office figures for the opening weekend are due early next week. The reviews say the film is worth the trip. In Melbourne, the harder part is getting in.
