AMC Odyssey – Ticket buyers trying to get “The Odyssey” IMAX tickets on AMC’s website or app after the June 4 on-sale date were immediately funneled into a queue, with wait times topping an hour as access slowed. The film arrives in theaters on July 17 on 70mm film and is b
When you hit AMC’s website or app to buy tickets for Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” you don’t land on a checkout screen. You land in a queue.
After “The Odyssey” went on sale June 4. ticket buyers who visited AMC Theaters’ site or used its app were sent straight to waiting in line. An individual with knowledge says the queue was triggered by a significant surge in activity and was designed to throttle traffic to the site—so the page wouldn’t crash under demand. For at least one user who kept refreshing and waiting. the time listed to get on the website was over an hour. and it kept climbing as the wait dragged on.
Those delays were just to reach the site, not to buy tickets for “The Odyssey,” or any other movie. And the situation wasn’t a small inconvenience for moviegoers in a hurry—it was a full detour before any purchase could even begin.
The tickets in question were for IMAX. “The Odyssey” will be exclusively shown in IMAX when it opens in theaters and on 70mm film on July 17. Fandango also saw a big surge of traffic. but other major ticket buying sites and theater websites appeared to be operating more or less normally at the time of writing. with quick checks of Regal and Cinemark showing no comparable issues.
The individual added that this kind of queue on AMC’s website has happened before. It’s described as a traffic-throttling method meant to control how many people hit the site at once, but it’s unclear which prior movie it affected.
That build-up matters because “The Odyssey” is being positioned as a high-stakes, big-screen event. The film recently unveiled its 70mm film screening locations across the country, and it’s also set for a three-week run at the Westwood Theater in Los Angeles under its new ownership.
Even the filmmaking details are part of the draw for IMAX fans. Nolan went all out with IMAX cameras this time around. including the fact that the movie was the first feature shot entirely with IMAX Film cameras. The production used a 15-perf/65mm film stock. along with a unique IMAX sound capture and syncing technique referred to as “blimp. ” designed to align audio with the image—so Nolan and DP Hoyte van Hoytema could shoot the film entirely on the IMAX cameras.
“The Odyssey” is being marketed as truly the only way to see it in IMAX. with the entire film presented in IMAX’s exclusive 1.90:1 Expanded Aspect Ratio. There will. however. be select IMAX 70mm Film screenings in the 1.43:1 Expanded Aspect Ratio. so viewers are being directed to double-check which format they’re booking.
At the same time, the ticket rush reflects where audiences are coming from. “The Odyssey” is Nolan’s follow-up to his Best Picture-winning “Oppenheimer. ” which grossed nearly a billion dollars at the global box office. The cast is stacked, featuring Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, and many more. The film is also described as Nolan’s re-telling of the ancient Greek epic written by Homer.
For anyone trying to buy early access to a format being treated as the definitive version, AMC’s queue created a brutal first hurdle—one that turned ticket shopping into a wait measured in more than an hour.
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