The Odyssey IMAX Screenings Sell Out as Japanese Celebrities Weigh In
Across the celebrity comments, the film's return-home story is being read as a message for the present day, with Lee Sang-il saying the wish to return home "presses on us as our own story, connected to the world now."
Key Facts
- The Odyssey's IMAX advance screenings in Japan began on September 4 and run through September 10, with the nationwide release set for September 11.
- Grand Cinema Sunshine Ikebukuro sold out all screenings for September 4 and 5 within hours of tickets going on sale, and other Tokyo theaters also reported sold-out showings.
- The Odyssey's worldwide box office reached $1.5526 billion (about 251.5 billion yen) as of August 30, the highest for a Nolan film and the highest ever for an R-rated release.
- The film is based on Homer's Odyssey, stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, and is the first feature shot entirely with IMAX cameras.
- Celebrity comments came from Lee Sang-il, Mari Yamazaki, Hideo Kojima, Takanori Iwata, Shigesato Itoi, and Soichi Noguchi, among others.
Reporting from 2 sources: Denfaminicogamer, Cinema Today.
Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey began IMAX advance screenings in Japan on September 4, and demand is running ahead of supply. Grand Cinema Sunshine Ikebukuro sold out every showing for September 4 and 5 within hours of tickets going on sale, and other Tokyo theaters reported sold-out screenings piling up. The advance run continues through September 10, ahead of the nationwide release on September 11. The screenings arrived with a wave of celebrity comments. Director Lee Sang-il called the film "a movie at the extreme point," manga artist Mari Yamazaki said it showed the maturity of film history, and game creator Hideo Kojima praised the all-IMAX presentation as "an Odyssey no one has seen." Astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who returned from space, said the story of a hero carrying guilt after war left him in awe. The film, based on Homer's epic and starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, is the first feature shot entirely with IMAX cameras. Its worldwide box office reached $1.5526 billion (about 251.5 billion yen) as of August 30, the highest for a Nolan film and the highest ever for an R-rated release.
The film runs 172 minutes and is described by its distributor as Nolan's 20-year ambition to adapt Homer's epic, with a cast that includes Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o, Zendaya, and Charlize Theron. Ancient Greece researcher Shishin Fujimura, who supervised the Japanese subtitles and dub, said the film is "not a movie to watch a myth, but a movie to board the ship."
The distributor also plans a Tokyo premiere on September 10 with five formats, and an SNS campaign called "Odysseus, listen to my 10 years" invites fans to post their own decade of struggle for a chance at original merchandise. The box office context is steep: the film passed $539.1 million domestically as of August 23, topping The Dark Knight's $534.98 million, and passed Deadpool & Wolverine to become the highest-grossing R-rated film worldwide. The advance IMAX screenings run through September 10, ahead of the nationwide release on September 11.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- Denfaminicogamer 映画『オデュッセイア』9月4日よりIMAX先行上映開始。『国宝』李相日監督や小島秀夫氏も絶賛
- Cinema Today 『オデュッセイア』李相日、ヤマザキマリ、小島秀夫ら著名人コメント公開 IMAX先行上映は完売続出