Topline<\/p>\n
Demand for Christopher Nolan\u2019s \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d appeared to surge Thursday afternoon after ticket sales kicked off, triggering secondary ticket postings up to $1,000 on eBay as AMC and Fandango experienced disruptions and long wait times for premium screenings of the highly anticipated movie.<\/p>\n
Wait times for online tickets reached over an hour for “The Odyssey.” (Photo by Gary Hershorn\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Getty ImagesKey Facts<\/p>\n
Tickets to see \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d in IMAX 70mm during its July 17 opening weekend reached between $500 and $1,000 on eBay for showings in New York, Texas, Florida and Arizona.<\/p>\n
Tickets for the fantasy epic went live on AMC at 12 p.m. EDT, though the queue was paused by AMC within the first half hour of the drop as moviegoers presumably flooded the website.<\/p>\n
Problems reported by users on downdetector.com spiked for AMC<\/a> and Fandango<\/a> shortly after tickets went live, with users on X also reporting<\/a> errors<\/a> with the purchase process.<\/p>\n Wait times for tickets reached over an hour on AMC\u2019s website, which appears to have returned to normal operations following early hours of the sale.<\/p>\n Forbes has reached out to AMC and Fandango for comment.<\/p>\n What Is Special About IMAX 70mm?<\/p>\n The pricey tickets on eBay are primarily for IMAX 70mm screenings of \u201cThe Odyssey.\u201d The format delivers triple the resolution of standard 35mm film and is several times larger than normal screens. \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d is also the first feature film to be entirely shot on IMAX camera, meaning screenings of the movie will maintain the same aspect ratio throughout unlike movies partially shot with IMAX that bounce between different ratios. Nolan is a high-profile advocate for IMAX and often encourages audiences to see his films in the format if possible.<\/p>\n What Other Movies Have Experienced Ticket Scalping?<\/p>\n Scalping typically occurs with highly anticipated, buzzy movie releases. Secondary markets like eBay also cropped up for tickets for the release of \u201cSpider-Man: No Way Home<\/a>\u201d in 2021 and \u201cAvengers: Endgame<\/a>\u201d in 2019. Tickets for \u201cStar Wars: The Force Awakens\u201d were also hit by scalpers in 2015, with tickets being sold on Ebay, Craigslist and StubHub, according to Variety<\/a>.<\/p>\n Key Background<\/p>\n Nolan\u2019s movie is expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars, as his last film, \u201cOppenheimer,\u201d scored $975 million at the global box office. After \u201cOppenheimer\u201d won seven Oscars on 13 nominations in 2024, \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d is also being teed up as frontrunner for the 2027 Academy Awards as it boasts a stacked cast consisting of Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson and Zendaya. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline Demand for Christopher Nolan\u2019s \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d appeared to surge Thursday afternoon after ticket sales kicked off, triggering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[32821,15279,48787,88,15280,206,165079,297953,12720,297952],"class_list":["post-685361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-amc","tag-christopher-nolan","tag-ebay","tag-entertainment","tag-imax","tag-movies","tag-scalp","tag-scalper","tag-the-odyssey","tag-the-odyssey-reach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}