The Odyssey: Nolan releases on July 17 the first film shot entirely in IMAX — budget, plot and formats

The Odyssey—in Spain, La Odisea— is the new action epic by Christopher Nolan, produced by Syncopy and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film adapts Homer's poem about Odysseus's return to Ithaca after the Trojan War and hits theaters on July 17, 2026 in the United States and the United Kingdom, following its world premiere in London on July 6. With an estimated budget of 250 million dollars and 172 minutes of footage, it is Nolan's most ambitious production since Oppenheimer — and the first fiction film in history shot entirely with IMAX 70 mm cameras, according to Variety and PetaPixel.

Will it be the first film recorded in its entirety in IMAX?

Almost, but with an important nuance. Nolan has already used IMAX cameras in action sequences since The Dark Knight (2008): shots of the Joker on the bank, the Batpod or Bane's escape in The Dark Knight Rises. In Interstellar, Dunkirk, Tenet and Oppenheimer he alternated IMAX 65/70 mm with other formats because the mechanical noise of the IMAX cameras prevented recording intimate dialogue up close.

The Odyssey breaks that barrier: every frame was shot in IMAX. To achieve this, IMAX and the technical team developed a “blimp”—insulating casing—that reduces noise and allows for whispers and close-ups. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema recorded evidence of a child reading David Bowie's "Sound and Vision"; Nolan described the result as "electrifying" in Variety. The filming consumed more than two million feet of IMAX film—about 610 kilometers—, which in media alone is around 3 million dollars at Kodak prices.

It is not the first film projected in IMAX nor the first to use the format partially. Yes, it is the first Hollywood narrative blockbuster shot 100% with IMAX film cameras, a milestone that Universal and IMAX promote in the “Completely in IMAX” featurette and on the official website OdysseyMovie.com.

What is the movie about

The plot follows Odysseus (Matt Damon), king of Ithaca, on his ten-year journey back home after the Trojan War. Nolan's script — written in 2024 after Oppenheimer's Oscar win — takes up the epic poem with a tactile realism approach: the gods do not appear as Olympian figures, but as natural phenomena that the characters interpret as divine intervention.

Key episodes include Cyclops Polyphemus (filmed in Greece, near Voidokilia), the Sirens, the sorceress Circe (Samantha Morton), the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron) and the descent into the underworld. In Ithaca, Penelope (Anne Hathaway) waits as suitors press the palace; Telemachus (Tom Holland), son of Odysseus, sets out on his own quest. Lupita Nyong'o plays a double role as Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra; Robert Pattinson is Antinous and Zendaya is Athena. Completing the cast are Benny Safdie, Elliot Page and Jon Bernthal, among others.

Nolan stated that he was seeking to fill a "gap in film history": The Odyssey had never received a large-scale A-budget adaptation with worldwide IMAX screening, despite inspiring decades of fantasy cinema—from the stop-motion animated films of Ray Harryhausen to contemporary blockbusters that, in the director's words, "all come from the Odyssey."

Budget and production scale

With about $250 million net budget, The Odyssey is among the most expensive films of Nolan's career — above Inception (~$175 million) and in line with The Dark Knight Rises, although below some MCU titles. Universal closed the project directly with Syncopy (without an auction, unlike Oppenheimer) and set the release date by announcing it in December 2024.

• Filming: 91 days between February 25 and August 5, 2025—nine days ahead of the calendar.
• Locations: Morocco (Troy, Essaouira), Greece (Pylos, Voidokilia), Italy (Favignana, Aeolian Islands), Iceland, Scotland (Findlater Castle), Malta, the Western Sahara Desert and the Universal lot in Los Angeles.
• Historical ship: The Draken Harald Hårfagre, the largest modern Viking longship, doubled as a Greek galley in the maritime sequences.
• Effects: Wētā Workshop (creatures) and DNEG (VFX), with editing by Jennifer Lame.
• Music: Ludwig Göransson—without classical symphony orchestra—with bronze gongs, aulos and lyre reconstructed for the Bronze Age; album on July 17.

Release schedule and formats

The film has a staggered release window intended to maximize the IMAX effect:

In the theater, the viewer can choose between several formats – all with material originating in IMAX – according to the guide of Variety:

• IMAX 70 mm (15/70): physical film projection; in some rooms, expanded 1.43:1 aspect ratio that fills the screen from floor to ceiling.
• Digital IMAX (1.90:1): High resolution laser in most commercial IMAX complexes.
• 70 mm and 35 mm in specialized cinemas.
• Dolby Vision and PLF (Cinemark XD, Regal RPX, etc.).

Official comparator: what the trailer looks like in each format

To understand the difference without going to the cinema, the official website published Explore Premium Formats in OdysseyMovie.com: an interactive tool where you choose the format and the trailer instantly adjusts to the corresponding aspect ratio.

Modes available in the comparator include 1.43:1 (IMAX 70mm expanded), 1.90:1, 2.20:1, 2.39:1, 1.85:1 and 35mm. When you change the option you see live how much frame you lose or gain: in 1.43:1 the image occupies more height (the format that IMAX promotes from "floor to ceiling" in compatible rooms); in 2.39:1 the same shot is cut to the usual panoramic strip of commercial cinema.

The site itself recalls that each frame of The Odyssey was shot with IMAX film cameras and that, in IMAX 70 mm venues, the projection uses the expanded ratio 1.43:1 with 15-perforation film in horizontal pitch—the highest resolution format offered by IMAX. Also note that the demo shows framing and composition, not the physical size of the screen, which changes from room to room.

Tickets for IMAX 70mm screenings in the United States went on sale in advance and some sessions sold out in minutes, reported PetaPixel. In Spain and Latin America, the exact date will depend on Universal Pictures International; The usual thing is a lag of one to two weekends with respect to the US.

Marketing: three trailers and a campaign under pressure

The The Odyssey campaign has gone in waves. The official trailer for December 2025 (Dec 22) accumulated 121.4 million global views in 24 hours — the eighth most viewed trailer of 2025 — according to data cited by Wikipedia. The second trailer, released on May 4, 2026 on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, expanded the visible cast — Circe, Antinous (Robert Pattinson), Polyphemus — and revived the debate on networks, according to Deadline.

The controversy of the countdown trailer: dislikes and comparison with Troy

The countdown trailer from July 1, 2026 became the focus of online controversy. The box office account Global Box Office on (2025) with Rachel Zegler: estimated ~80% dislikes in The Odyssey, compared to ~95% for the Disney trailer, in extension data that restores the counter hidden by YouTube since 2021 — not official figures from the studio.

Specialized media such as Cosmic Book News documented the escalation: on the Universal channel, the ratio went from 62% negative in the first few hours to more than 80% in just a few hours. days, with hundreds of thousands of dislikes versus tens of thousands of visible likes. It is, according to these estimates, the Nolan trailer with the worst reception on YouTube — a far cry from the 99% positive of the first Oppenheimer trailer.

Where does rejection come from? The memes Troy (2004) vs The Odyssey (2026)

Much of the noise does not come from the footage itself, but from a clash of casting expectations that the networks amplify with collages and comparative posters. The recurring reference is Troy (2004) by Wolfgang Petersen —not a 2006 film—, with Brad Pitt as Achilles and Diane Kruger as Helena. In Nolan.

The most cited sticking points, compiled by HuffPost and Collider, they are:

• Helen of Troy: Lupita Nyong'o plays Helen and Clytemnestra. Since the casting announcement, far-rightists and commentators such as Matt Walsh criticized the casting; Nyong'o responded in Elle that it is "a mythological story" with a cast "representative of the world."
• Achilles and Troy: For months there was speculation about Elliot Page as Achilles; Nolan later revealed the role of Sinon. Still, the comparison to Pitt's Achilles continues to be used in "how he looked before/what he looks like now" memes.
• Age and tone: Matt Damon (55 years old at the time of filming) as Odysseus versus the young hero image of many adaptations; American accents and dialogues that sound "too modern" for those who expected epic verse.
• Armor and design: The red Corinthian helmet of Damon's first image and the "Batman-like" appearance of Agamemnon (Benny Safdie) fueled the debate of historical accuracy versus spectacle.
• Greek representation: Voices in Greece have questioned who tells the story and with what faces.

Important nuances: YouTube no longer shows public dislikes; Figures depend on extensions and can be inflated by coordinated brigading. A trailer with a bad ratio does not condemn the box office: the first trailer in December was a success with views and IMAX 70 mm tickets were sold out in advance. But the countdown showed that the casting controversy had not dissipated two weeks before the premiere — just when Universal needed to convert curiosity into mass enthusiasm.

The campaign also included a spot in Super Bowl LX, a crossover with the 2026 Winter Olympics and merchandising (IMAX popcorn bucket, Trojan horse-shaped container). The world premiere in London on July 6 coincided with a new wave of comments about the cast on international networks.

Ovation on set: Samantha Morton as Circe

In parallel to the storm of dislikes on YouTube, positive news about the filming itself circulated in July. In the Empire interview (August 2026 issue), producer Emma Thomas—Nolan's partner on Syncopy—said that, upon finishing her scene, Samantha Morton received a standing ovation from the cast and crew. According to Thomas, it was the first time it had happened on a Christopher Nolan set since Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight (2008). The data went viral on href="https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/2157161-the-odyssey-just-broke-a-record-christopher-nolan-hasnt-achieved-since-the-dark-knight" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ComingSoon.net collected it as an internal record for Nolan's filmography.

Nolan stated in the same piece that Morton was "absolutely" who he had in mind when writing Circe with a more human approach than in many previous adaptations - something that TIME had already teased in May by confirming her casting with this official image. The actress—twice nominated for an Oscar (Sweet and Lowdown, In America)—almost does not appear in the Universal trailers, which makes the reaction of the team on set more striking. It does not guarantee awards or box office, but it does suggest that, beyond the casting noise on networks, there are performances that have already impressed those who saw the full footage.

Marketing: the first trailer that swept views

Before the storm of dislikes, the December 2025 trailer had been a success: two minutes after a six-minute prologue (the Trojan horse) exclusive to IMAX 70 mm screenings of One Battle After Another and Sinners. It surpassed Wicked: For Good and doubled the views of the first Oppenheimer trailer in the same period.

Is it worth seeing it in IMAX?

If the question is technical, Nolan designed the film for IMAX: the resolution of the 70 mm film, the framing and the scale of landscapes and battles justify finding a room with physical or laser IMAX projection. If the question is narrative, the challenge is different: to condense a poem of 12,000 verses in less than three hours while maintaining "very close" fidelity to the text, according to those who have read the script, with specific changes (more presence of the dog Argos, more father-son scenes, Circe more human).

Until the premiere, the critical debate combines the controversy of dislikes and casting with positive signals from the filming - such as the ovation for Morton -, the historical accuracy of armor and accents, and the filming in Western Sahara, questioned by Sahrawi activists. These are indications that The Odyssey will not just be a technical show: it will be one of the cultural events—and one of the most talked about on social networks—of the summer of 2026.