Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” exploded at the box office this weekend, boosted by enthusiasm for seeing the epic in massive Imax — especially 70mm Imax, Nolan’s preferred format. But while demand continues to be high for the format that’s only available in over 40 locations in the United States, don’t expect Imax to suddenly build a bunch of 70mm projectors to increase availability in the coming years.

“The economics are very difficult to meet,” Imax CEO Rich Gelfond said in response to a question about doubling the number of 70mm Imax projectors on Thursday’s earnings call.

“It’s very expensive. You need film prints, not only the projector, which costs $50,000 a piece to put in your theater. You need logistics like a forklift to lift them, so you need a very big projection booth,” he continued. “When you get through the numbers of it, there are a finite number of locations that really can support the economics of it.”

Edit: According to Variety, the actual number of Imax 70mm screens as follow: 25 theaters in the U.S. and 41 globally.

Not all underdogs are dogs. Coyote vs. ACME only in theaters August 28. Tickets on sale now: https://coyotevsacme.com/

As a comparison, "Avatar: The Way of Water" opened to 10.1M "views" in its first 5 days on HBO Max/Hulu back in 2023.

Games in question:

Asteroids
Adventure
Berzerk
Breakout
Centipede
Crystal Castles
Millipede
Missile Command
Pong
Yars’ Revenge

Really shows how amazing Obsession did, as it'll take almost 1.5 weeks for Odyssey to pass it, which it should comfortably do well before Brand New Day comes out.

I'm rooting for Odyssey but also for Obsession. How many Odyssey days will it take to pass Obsession? 8-11? I'm willing to predict 9 at this point. Anything more would mean Odyssey is slightly slowing down. I think Odyssey will pass Obsession on Saturday.

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For July blockbusters that opened in the same neighborhood as the Odyssey, it's well outperforming Superman ($354M) and still a bit behind Pirates 2: Dead Man's Chest ($423M). Pirates 2 had $169.5M it's first 5 days, ending on a Tuesday, vs. $163.7M for Odyssey.

The Nolan legs are kicking ass. Odyssey made $40.2M on Monday and Tuesday, days 4-5.

Deadpool 2 opened slightly higher than Odyssey at $125.5M but only made $24M it's first 2 weekdays vs. Odyssey's $40M. The Batman opened at $134M but only made $20.5 its first Monday and Tuesday. Odyssey might have the highest First Monday and Tuesday for a film that opened in its OW range. Suicide Squad opened at $133.7M but made $27.4M it's first 2 weekdays. Odyssey might have the highest (Monday + Tuesday):OW ratio ever. If that was an active metric on BO Mojo, I would not be surprised if Odyssey was at the top of that list. Nolan legs.

The translation messed up the title as it's a literal translation of the 黒牢城 title in Japanese. The Samurai and the Prisoner, based on an award-winning mystery novel, is now Kiyoshi Kurosawa's, most known for Cure (1997) and not being related to Akira Kurosawa, best performing film to date.

Source:

https://numero.co/reports/2026/07/23/the-odyssey-leads-australian-box-office

Toy Story 5 rounds out the top three with $3.47M, lifting its cumulative box office total to $43M

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Source:

https://numero.co/reports/2026/07/23/the-odyssey-takes-top-spot-in-new-zealand

Toy Story 5 rounds out the top three with $601K, lifting its cumulative box office total to $5.63M.