The staggering four-figure price tags fans are paying for The Odyssey on opening weekend

How much would you pay to go to the cinema? If it’s any less than $1400, you may miss the chance to watch The Odyssey in its prime format on opening weekend.

Ticket scalpers in the United States are reselling tickets to see The Odyssey in IMAX 70mm for upwards of $1400 on eBay – and the craziest part is that people seem to be willing to pay it.

Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic is the first film to be shot entirely on IMAX cameras, using 70mm film, and there are only a handful of cinemas across the globe that can show it in its original format.

While there are close to 2000 IMAX cinemas across 89 countries, most of them (Sydney included) will be showing the digitised format of the movie.

Those lucky enough to score tickets at one of the 30 to 40 IMAX cinemas around the world that can show the original 70mm format (one of which is in Melbourne) will be watching the film with sharper visuals, richer colours, and the original, larger aspect ratio (screen size).

However, it’s not as easy as it might sound to get your hands on those tickets, with desperate fans now willing to pay four digits.

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Forbes reports that tickets to The Odyssey in 70mm IMAX during opening weekend at theatres in New York, Texas, Florida and Arizona reached between $US500 and $US1000 on eBay (approximately $720 to $1441). The highest price seen by nine.com.au was $US990 (approximately $1436) with one active offer.

While tickets for standard and IMAX digital formats of the film went on sale a month ahead of the film’s release, IMAX 70mm tickets were released on July 17, 2025, a whole year before ahead of release, marking an unprecedented presale for cinema.

US outlets also report that the AMC Cinemas website and app were flooded with cinemagoers when tickets went on sale, so much so that the queue had to be paused. When it resumed, fans faced hour-long queues and further crashes while attempting to secure tickets.

Now, as the star-studded cast – including Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya and Robert Pattinson – embark on their worldwide press tour, the demand for tickets has only grown.

Throughout the tour, Nolan and the cast have repeatedly spoken on the benefits of seeing the film in IMAX as they’ve been asked about the challenges of being a part of the first film to be shot entirely on IMAX cameras, a feat that has been technically impossible until Nolan and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema devised what has been colloquially coined ‘the mirror system’.

While the differences between regular IMAX and 70mm may seem minuscule to some, it appears that others are willing to fork out thousands for the benefit of seeing The Odyssey in its prime form.