Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey opened in cinemas on July 17, 2026. Fans from at least three continents traveled to the BFI Imax near Waterloo Bridge in London for a midnight premiere in IMAX 1570, the highest-resolution film format in existence. The BFI Imax is one of the few cinemas worldwide screening the film in that format. The Guardian

Christian Campbell, a 22-year-old film graduate from Atlanta, traveled more than 4,000 miles to attend the midnight screening. It was his first time leaving the United States. Campbell had purchased his ticket a year in advance. He had originally planned to see the film in New York, but tickets sold out immediately. He could not secure tickets in Georgia either, making London his third choice.

Three friends from Switzerland made the same journey. Marco Garbely, a 30-year-old healthcare worker, traveled with Julian Jäger, also 30, who works in finance, and Gilbert Oggier. Jäger first watched Nolan's Inception in a cinema at age 15 and considers it his favorite Nolan film. Garbely rated Oppenheimer (2023) as Nolan's best work before seeing The Odyssey. Rachana Mettem incorporated the BFI Imax screening into a broader tour of the UK and Ireland. Fans also traveled from Ireland to London for the premiere.

The BFI had built anticipation in the months leading up to the release. Its Imax venue ran a monthly "Christopher Nolan on Film" strand, screening Nolan's previous films on IMAX 70mm prints. The BFI's cultural programme for July to September 2026, announced in December 2025, included The Odyssey playing on an IMAX 70mm print. The BFI homepage featured a story quoting a cast member: "It's never quite brutal enough for Chris."

The Odyssey is the first feature film shot entirely on IMAX 1570 cameras. These cameras each weigh 180 kilograms, roughly the same as a grand piano. IMAX 1570 works by using very wide film stock — 70 millimeters across — with 15 perforations (the small holes along the edge of the film strip) per frame. That means each frame holds a much larger and more detailed picture than a normal movie camera can capture. Think of it as the difference between a smartphone photo and a large-format print from a professional camera, but at a scale that fills a screen several stories tall.

Nolan worked with IMAX to develop a soundproofing "blimp" — a heavy cover around the camera — to make the 1570 cameras quiet enough to record dialogue for the first time. Before this, the cameras were too loud for actors to be heard during filming. The production budget was $250 million (£186 million). Box office predictions suggested the film could earn $80 million to $100 million on its first weekend in North America alone.

Critical reception was strong. The review embargo broke on Wednesday, July 15, 2026. The Odyssey debuted with a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, later settling at 96%. The Guardian published a five-star review on July 15, calling it a "god-tier" breathtaking epic.

The film's release was not without controversy. Elon Musk was among those who engaged in far-right criticism of Lupita Nyong'o's casting as Helen. That discourse circulated alongside the overwhelmingly positive critical reception and the fan pilgrimage to limited 1570 venues.

The broader context here is that Nolan's commitment to analog film has created a situation where not all screenings of The Odyssey are the same. Most cinemas show the film digitally or on standard 70mm film. The 1570 IMAX prints require special projectors, screens, and room design that only a handful of cinemas in the world have. For audiences who see the format itself as part of the experience, the venue becomes the destination. Campbell's journey from Atlanta, after failing to get tickets in two American cities, shows how narrow that pipeline is. The scarcity is not of the film itself but of the format.

The "Christopher Nolan on Film" strand at BFI Imax served as more than a throwback series. It got audiences used to the feel of large-format film projection before a release designed to take advantage of those qualities. That strategy appears to have helped create the kind of audience willing to cross borders for a midnight show.

The 1570 camera system has been Nolan's signature tool since sequences in The Dark Knight (2008), but The Odyssey is the first feature shot entirely with it. The soundproofing blimp, developed to allow dialogue recording on a camera system previously limited to images only, removes what was arguably the last major barrier to full-length 1570 production. Whether other directors adopt the system, or Nolan's partnership with IMAX keeps the format tied to a single filmmaker's work, is a question the next few years of cinema may answer.

Photographs accompanying The Guardian's coverage of the midnight premiere were taken by Christian Sinibaldi.