{"id":803612,"date":"2026-07-16T09:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T09:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/803612\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T09:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T09:05:14","slug":"one-fan-flew-from-new-york-to-watch-the-odyssey-and-its-so-worth-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/803612\/","title":{"rendered":"One fan flew from New York to watch The Odyssey and \u2018it\u2019s so worth it\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Save<\/p>\n

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n

Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n

AAA<\/p>\n

Until the opening day of The Odyssey in cinemas, university student Shreeya Singh had never watched a Christopher Nolan film.<\/p>\n

Oppenheimer, Dunkirk, Inception, The Dark Knight and the rest of the acclaimed British director\u2019s output had passed her by. But she wanted to see his ancient Greek epic on opening day at Sydney\u2019s IMAX cinema.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cI\u201cI sobbed my eyes out\u201d: University student Shreeya Singh, who watched The Odyssey at IMAX in Sydney.Wolter Peeters<\/p>\n

Her reaction? \u201cHonestly, awe,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s such an epic story from Homer, and so it\u2019s probably one of the best tellings of any Greek tragedy I\u2019ve ever watched. I sobbed my eyes out, which is probably not what you\u2019d think. It\u2019s just a beautiful telling.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Melbourne\u2019s IMAX, Maree Muscara watched an 11am screening of The Odyssey right after getting off a flight from New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo jetlagged [but] straight to it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not my first Nolan film to be flying across the world for, and every time I do it, it\u2019s so worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tradition began for the 28-year-old when she flew to London for the premiere of Dunkirk in 2017. She planned to do the same for Tenet in 2020 until COVID-19 intervened. But she flew to Britain again for Oppenheimer in 2023.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cIt\u2019s\u201cIt\u2019s not my first Nolan film to be flying across the world for, and every time I do it, it\u2019s so worth it\u201d: Maree Muscara watched an 11am session of The Odyssey in Melbourne straight after getting off a flight from New York.Ruby Alexander<\/p>\n

Muscara enjoyed The Odyssey so much that she planned to see it again as soon as possible. \u201cIf I can get a ticket, I\u2019ll probably rewatch it today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Hoyts chain chief executive Damian Keogh said that by mid-afternoon The Odyssey was heading towards having the biggest opening day in Australian cinemas this year with $2 million, overtaking The Devil Wears Prada 2\u2019s $1.7 million.<\/p>\n

That suggests Singh and Muscara were among almost 100,000 people who watched it on day one.<\/p>\n

While nowhere near the all-time record (Avengers: Endgame reportedly opened with $11.6 million in 2019), it was another sign that cinemas are rebounding this year after the battering from COVID and the Hollywood strikes.<\/p>\n

While Keogh thought it was too early to tell if The Odyssey would match the $42.6 million that Oppenheimer took, he thought it was on track to pass $30 million and to possibly reach $40 million.<\/p>\n

The biggest movie of the year so far has been Michael with $46.3 million, though the more recently released Toy Story 5 is expected to crack $50 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just a master filmmaker,\u201d Keogh said of Nolan. \u201cHe really does make them for the big screen. This is not a movie you want to watch on an airplane or on an iPad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MattMatt Damon as Odysseus and Zendaya as Athena in The Odyssey.Melinda Sue Gordon<\/p>\n

The Odyssey, which has Greek hero Odysseus (Matt Damon) facing mythic creatures and challenges as he makes his way home after the Trojan War, is opening after a strong first half of the year for cinemas. Box office is 20 per cent up on the same period last year.<\/p>\n

Keogh said this year\u2019s box office could reach $1.1 billion, still below the pre-COVID peak of $1.259 billion in 2016 but well up on last year\u2019s $970 million.<\/p>\n

Palace Cinemas chief executive Benjamin Zeccola said The Odyssey, which runs for 172 minutes, was watched in smaller cinemas as well as mega screens.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cIt\u2019s\u201cIt\u2019s such a technical marvel on every single front\u201d: Ed Oxenbould, right, and brother Archie after The Odyssey screening. Wolter Peeters<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people want the biggest screen possible,\u201d he said. \u201cOther people, because of the runtime, want the most comfortable cinema possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zeccola said it was attracting many more males than females. \u201cIt\u2019s the polar opposite of The Devil Wears Prada,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s swords and sandals and, I guess, a precursor to the Roman Empire that apparently is on men\u2019s minds so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actor Ed Oxenbould, who went to The Odyssey with brother Archie, said watching it felt like watching Lawrence of Arabia when it first came out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a technical marvel on every single front,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think anything will come close to that kind of cinematic event in a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not everyone was as convinced, though. Niyaz Mohammed, 42, said he expected more \u201ctime mechanisms\u201d in the film, presumably to more closely match the timeline of Homer\u2019s Odyssey, but he still enjoyed Nolan\u2019s storytelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watch all of his movies at least three times so that I understand properly,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve already booked a ticket for Saturday night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cI\u201cI watch all of his movies at least three times so that I understand properly\u201d: Niyaz Mohammed.Ruby Alexander<\/p>\n

Was it worth the hefty ticket price that comes with an IMAX screening: $47 for the 70mm version in Melbourne as part of that cinema\u2019s $1.8 million in advance ticket sales? Blair McMillan, 35, thought it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people don\u2019t go to the movies as much as they used to,\u201d he said. \u201cSo when you do finally go out and it\u2019s such a big spectacle, and you can tell how much blood, sweat and tears have gone into it, I 100 per cent think it\u2019s justified.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Karl Quinn<\/p>\n

Want to read more about The Odyssey?Save<\/p>\n

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n

Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n

\"KaylaKayla Olaya<\/a> is a culture reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.\"NellNell Geraets<\/a> is a Culture reporter at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,134,344],"class_list":["post-803612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}