‘The Odyssey’ Ticket Release Delays Preorder Sites With Hour-Long Queues Akin to Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’

Hardcore cinephiles are rushing to get their hands on tickets to Imax screenings of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” and demand on the first day of premium format presales is pushing ticketing websites almost to the breaking point.

On social media, eager fans of the Oscar-winning filmmaker complained of long wait times to get tickets to his adaptation of Homer’s epic starring Matt Damon, with online queues popping up on AMC and Fandango on Thursday.

While a spokesperson for AMC declined to comment, an individual with knowledge of ticketing site software says that major theater chains like AMC have software equipped to prevent server crashes due to web traffic from overwhelming demand, implementing a queue system when a high number of moviegoers are trying to buy tickets for a specific film or screening time. Such systems kicked in back in 2023 when tickets for Taylor Swift’s concert film “The Eras Tour” went on sale.

On Thursday morning, that anti-crash system led to queue times on AMC’s website as long as an hour. When TheWrap attempted to access AMC’s webpage for “The Odyssey” at time of writing, there was a queue time of 43 minutes.

Nolan has long been a champion of Imax with films like “Interstellar” and his Best Picture Oscar-winning “Oppenheimer,” and “The Odyssey” is making history as the first-ever film to be shot entirely with Imax cameras thanks to a new fleet of lighter cameras that allowed Nolan’s cinematographer, Hoyte van Hoytema, to shoot action and ocean scenes that would have been impossible with previous Imax cameras.

That makes the format the definitive way to watch Nolan’s film, and that has made Imax screenings into appointment viewing across the country. In an unprecedented move, Universal released opening weekend screenings for “The Odyssey” at nine theaters that were showing the film in Imax 70mm a full year in advance, resulting in near-instant sellouts.

Imax has even played into its association with “The Odyssey” with its first-ever popcorn bucket timed to the release of the film.

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