“The Odyssey” at BFI IMAX London: The Quiet Before The Storm! | Read more at in70mm.com The 70mm Newsletter |
| Written and photographed by: Mark Trompeteler, in70mm.com, London, UK | Date: 12.07.2026 |
 London based co-staff member for in70mm.com, Mark Trompeteler, immortalised in stone by “The Odyssey” website, walks past an eerily quiet BFI IMAX at London’s Waterloo.I recently had to attend an IMIS meeting at Deluxe. My host at the meeting informed me how very busy Deluxe were preparing all the different DCP versions of “The Odyssey” for its imminent distribution and screenings. • Go to gallery “The Odyssey” at BFI IMAX London Coming out of Waterloo station the distinctive shape of The BFI Imax looms prominently on the immediate horizon. There is no doubt as to what 15perf 70mm version of a film they are about to show. Only a few days before, a combined world première featuring the two venues of The Odeon Leicester Square and the BFI IMAX had taken place. Across the press and social media the general consensus seems to be that première was also a full-scale celebration of large-format photochemical analogue cinema. A very significant celebration of both 65mm film capture, and the 70mm and IMAX exhibition formats. Online reports indicate that 41 prints of “The Odyssey” in the 15-perf IMAX 70mm format were struck, with sadly only about 40 cinemas worldwide left with the projectors capable of screening this fantastic format. The film’s ambitious analogue rollout, exceeds the number of prints struck for "Oppenheimer". These 15perf/70mm IMAX prints were struck directly from the original camera negative, offering the purest quality for the 1.43:1 aspect ratio, captured for the first time on IMAX cameras throughout the whole film. • Go to Film Projection Perfection • Go to Elise Rethore: Projectionist, BFI IMAX, London | More in 70mm reading: “The Odyssey”: The 70mm Presentations Film Projection Perfection. The Fabric of Magic, Part 2 Elise Rethore: Projectionist, BFI IMAX, London in70mm.com News Peripheral Vision, Scopes, Dimensions and Panoramas in70mm.com's Library Presented on the big screen in 7OMM 7OMM and Cinema Across the World Now showing in 70mm in a theatre near you! 70mm Retro - Festivals and Screenings |
 BFI IMAX will be showing the film with an initial 24/7 screening schedule, and then a less heavy screening schedule through to mid August., Demand for the 24/7 screenings of the opening weeks has been exceptionally high. Advance ticket sales for “The Odyssey” at BFI IMAX have broken the cinema’s previous records. London’s BFI IMAX smashed its first-day sales record by bringing in over £750,000 - $1.01 million. This compares to the £366.000 that it took for “Dune: Part Two” and the £254,000 that it took for “Oppenheimer” for the same comparable period. Industry pundits predict that the global opening for “The Odyssey” could hit around $200 million to $250 million. This has been driven by unprecedented advance ticket sales and historic presale records for digital premium large formats, digital and analogue IMAX, and 70mm. With a reported $250 million production budget, the film will need to gross roughly $625 million globally to break even, and potentially more when factoring in the huge global marketing expenditure. When I walked past the BFI IMAX it was eerily quiet. The foyer, the lobbies, café, and corridors were all empty. The popcorn was being stacked high in lobbies as were bottles of liquid refreshment, paper towels and all the supplies that cinemas consume. From the digital posters and the outside of the building there was no doubt about what film was about to open. One could sense that something big was about to happen! | |
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