IMAX Corporation (NYSE:IMAX) saw its shares climb roughly 4% after Christopher Nolan’s film The Odyssey posted a record‑breaking opening weekend in IMAX venues, delivering $52 million globally. The movie, shot entirely with IMAX 70 mm film cameras, accounted for 20% of its overall global debut box office and set several IMAX milestones, including the largest like‑for‑like opening weekend worldwide, excluding China, Japan and South Korea, surpassing the prior record by 16%.
In North America, The Odyssey earned $29.6 million across 444 IMAX screens, representing a 23.8% market share of the region’s IMAX box office. Internationally, the film generated $22.2 million on 441 screens across 74 markets, capturing 16% of the international IMAX box office. Twenty‑six markets – notably France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Mexico and Argentina – recorded their biggest IMAX opening weekend to date.
IMAX’s 70 mm locations, limited to 41 theatres worldwide, contributed $6.3 million to the weekend total, averaging $153,000 per screen. Pre‑sales for the film reached $50 million, establishing another IMAX record. The overall IMAX earnings for the weekend of July 17 amounted to $60 million, supplemented by additional revenue from local‑language films in China, Japan and South Korea.
The film’s IMAX run is scheduled to continue for at least three weeks, with planned expansions in South Korea on August 5, China on August 14, and Japan on September 11. IMAX 70 mm venues will retain the film for a minimum of five weeks.
For the production, director Christopher Nolan and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema shot approximately 2.1 million feet of IMAX film and collaborated with IMAX to develop The Keighley, a next‑generation IMAX camera.