LOS ANGELES — Christopher Nolan’s Homeric epic is sailing back onto the biggest screens in town. The Odyssey returned to select IMAX theaters and 70mm screens starting Friday, October 9, Universal Studios announced Tuesday, giving the film a second premium-format run just as its theatrical haul cemented it as the biggest hit in the studio’s history. For fans who missed the first The Odyssey IMAX wave this summer, the comeback is a rare second chance to see Nolan’s mythic voyage the way it was designed to be seen.
The announcement, made October 6 via the film’s official X account, read in part that Nolan’s The Odyssey was “returning to IMAX,” with screenings at select IMAX theaters beginning October 9 and tickets on sale now, according to CNBC TV18. The return covers both digital IMAX auditoriums and the prized IMAX 70mm presentation — the format that turned the film’s opening weeks into an event unto itself.
The Odyssey IMAX Return: Dates, Formats, and Where It’s Playing
Screenings at select IMAX theaters began October 9, per Universal’s announcement, as reported by The Wrap. The studio is treating this as a genuine second run rather than a leftover engagement: the film had been playing IMAX 70mm all summer before those auditoriums were turned over to Warner Bros.’ new release Digger for the October 2–4 weekend.
The demand case for a second run is easy to make. Fiction Horizon noted that tickets for the first IMAX 70mm screenings went on sale a full year in advance and that those screens kept selling out at all hours more than two months into the run — unusual staying power even by Nolan standards. Theaters showing the 70mm version became destination screenings, with some moviegoers traveling across cities and states for a seat.
How $1.76 Billion Made The Odyssey Universal’s Biggest Film Ever
The comeback arrives at the end of a run for the record books. Starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, alongside Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Jon Bernthal, The Odyssey has grossed $1.76 billion worldwide. That total makes it Universal’s highest-grossing film of all time before adjusting for inflation, passing the $1.67 billion global record set by Jurassic World in 2015 during the film’s ninth weekend in theaters, according to The Wrap.
The studio record joins a pile of other milestones, per The Wrap’s reporting:
- Nolan’s career-best gross — surpassing even the inflation-adjusted total of The Dark Knight Rises.
- The all-time R-rated box office record.
- The highest-grossing film ever for IMAX as a format.
- Nolan’s third $1 billion-plus hit, coming 18 years after his first, The Dark Knight, became the first superhero film to cross that milestone.
- The first non-sequel or non-remake since Avatar in early 2010 to gross more than $1 billion outside the United States and Canada — a marker of the film’s extraordinary international pull.
The film opened to $264.1 million globally, Nolan’s biggest worldwide opening, and its domestic cumulative total has climbed past $600.5 million, according to Associated Press box-office figures compiled by Shorty News.
NBCUniversal Entertainment chairman Donna Langley praised the achievement in a statement carried by The Wrap and ComingSoon, describing what Nolan and producer Emma Thomas created as one of the most ambitious and brilliantly executed films in cinematic history — “a generational event that galvanizes moviegoing itself.”
Why The Odyssey IMAX 70mm Screens Opened Up Again
The timing of the return is hard to separate from what happened on those premium screens last weekend. IMAX had been showing The Odyssey in 70mm all summer, but for the October 2–4 frame the auditoriums went to Digger, the Warner Bros. release starring Tom Cruise and directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu — a film shot in 65mm VistaVision that was positioned as a premium-format event of its own, per ComingSoon.
Instead, Digger opened disastrously, taking roughly $8 million domestically over its first weekend — reported as Cruise’s lowest opening in 19 years — with about $12 million from 74 international markets for a global start of just under $20 million, according to coverage aggregated by Fiction Horizon and Medium. With the premium screens suddenly underperforming, IMAX turned back to the film that had been filling them all summer.
Whether the Digger hand-off was always planned as a one-weekend test or became an exit ramp after the numbers came in is unconfirmed — neither IMAX nor Universal has publicly detailed the booking logic. What is confirmed is the outcome: The Odyssey reclaimed the screens starting October 9.
What the Return Means for Box Office Records
The second run gives The Odyssey room to extend several of its records. It placed third domestically in its ninth weekend with $7.4 million, behind Spider-Man: Brand New Day and the No. 1 debut of Practical Magic 2, per AP figures — a soft landing for a film already deep into historic territory. Every additional week in IMAX pads its standing as the format’s highest-grossing release ever and widens the gap over Jurassic World in Universal’s all-time rankings, a subject this site has tracked through this fall’s box office records coverage.
The broader theatrical picture has been unusually kind to big swings this year. The same weekend box office frame that saw The Odyssey finish third also featured a $30 million debut for Practical Magic 2 and continued strength from Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which has since become the highest-grossing domestic release of all time.
Nolan, Universal, and a Five-Year Partnership Paying Off
The Odyssey continues the partnership between Nolan and Universal that began five years ago, when the filmmaker ended his decade-plus tenure at Warner Bros. and signed on with the Comcast studio to make the three-hour biopic Oppenheimer, according to The Wrap. That bet produced a Best Picture winner; the follow-up has now produced the studio’s biggest grosser ever.
The film was shot entirely with IMAX cameras — a production choice that explains both the format’s centrality to its identity and the audience behavior around it. For Nolan, who has spent years championing large-format film exhibition, the second run is both a commercial decision and a vindication of the strategy: build for the biggest screen, and the audience will come twice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: When did The Odyssey return to IMAX?
A: Universal announced the return on October 6 via the film’s official X account, with screenings at select IMAX theaters and 70mm screens beginning Friday, October 9, 2026.
Q: Which formats is The Odyssey playing in during its second run?
A: The return covers select IMAX theaters — including the IMAX 70mm film presentation — and additional 70mm screens, according to The Wrap and ComingSoon.
Q: How much has The Odyssey grossed worldwide?
A: The film has earned $1.76 billion worldwide, making it Universal’s highest-grossing film ever before inflation adjustment, passing Jurassic World‘s $1.67 billion record from 2015.
Q: What box office records does The Odyssey hold?
A: Beyond the Universal studio record, it is Nolan’s career-best grosser, the all-time R-rated box office champion, the highest-grossing IMAX release ever, Nolan’s third $1 billion-plus film, and the first non-sequel/non-remake since Avatar (2010) to earn over $1 billion outside the U.S. and Canada.
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