Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey Opens Today With a Historic IMAX Gamble

An Ancient Epic, an Unprecedented Camera

Nearly 3,000 years after Homer first told the story of Odysseus, Christopher Nolan has brought it to the biggest screen imaginable — and changed cinema in the process. *The Odyssey* made history as the first feature film ever shot entirely with IMAX film cameras , a technical achievement so audacious that it required a soundproof camera housing roughly the size of a coffin, weighing over 136 kilograms, with dollies reinforced with steel plating just to carry it — and six people to move it. The film opens in theaters across the United States today, July 17, 2026.

With an estimated budget of $250 million, the film is among the most expensive of Nolan's career. It is the first film Nolan has released since *Oppenheimer* (2023), which won seven Academy Awards, including best actor, best director, and best picture. The pressure to follow that triumph was immense. By all early indications, Nolan has delivered.

Monsters, Gods, and a Star-Studded Cast

The film follows Odysseus, the legendary Greek king of Ithaca, whose quest to return home after the Trojan War turns into a decade-long journey filled with gods, monsters, and impossible challenges. Matt Damon stars as Odysseus, with Tom Holland as Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, and Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. Pattinson's Antinous is the most vile of the suitors trying to steal Odysseus's home and wife, while Zendaya plays the goddess Athena and Charlize Theron plays the nymph Calypso.

In one of the film's more surprising casting choices, rapper Travis Scott plays a bard, and Nolan has explained that he chose Scott to draw a connection between hip-hop and the oral poetry tradition through which Homer's epic was originally passed down. Filming took place from February to August 2025 across Morocco, Greece, Italy, Scotland, Iceland, Western Sahara, and Malta, as well as at the Universal Studios Lot in Los Angeles. Nolan wanted the physical reality of those landscapes to inform every frame.

The IMAX Problem Nobody Had Solved Before

The decision to shoot entirely on IMAX film was not simply an aesthetic choice — it was a technical mountain. IMAX film cameras are famously massive and famously loud, loud enough that the sound of the camera itself could drown out an actor's dialogue on a take. Each camera magazine only allows between two and a half to three minutes of continuous shooting before it needs to be reloaded. To solve the sound problem, IMAX built a specialized soundproof housing around the camera that would allow Nolan and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema to film intimate scenes close to the actors while capturing usable live sound. But that fix created another problem: the cameras in the special "blimp" casing were now so large that they couldn't be placed between actors during a normal setup, so Nolan and his crew added mirrors near the camera so that each actor could look at a reflection that lined up with the other performer's eyeline.

Tickets for IMAX 70mm screenings sold out instantly and are being scalped on eBay for upwards of $1,500. That frenzy reflects a hard reality: only 25 U.S. theaters have the equipment to show the film as Nolan intended, in true 70mm IMAX projection. Everyone else will see a version — but not *the* version.

Critics Are Largely Convinced

On Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of 264 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.8/10, with the site's critical consensus stating the film "reinvigorates an ancient adventure with majestic sweep and sterling work by its colossal ensemble." Other critics were less enthusiastic, including *The New Yorker*'s Richard Brody, who complained that Nolan "turns an epic poem prosaic," and *Time*'s Stephanie Zacharek, who called it an "eye-glazing dud." As with most Nolan films, the debate itself has become part of the spectacle.

In France, where the film opened on July 15, *The Odyssey* drew 230,000 viewers on its opening day, surpassing the French opening of *Oppenheimer*, which drew 160,000 viewers on its release in July 2023. A global debut projected to top $200 million suggests audiences are ready to make the journey alongside Odysseus — whether or not they can find one of the 25 theaters showing it the way Nolan dreamed it. For a story that has survived three millennia, a little scarcity only adds to the myth.