Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ is finally here

The long-awaited sails are appearing on the horizon, as Christopher Nolan’s $250 million adaptation of the Greek classic you SparkNoted in high school The Odyssey hits theaters in the US today.Cinephiles and cinema CEOs are holding their breath for the biggest premiere of the summer, featuring an Olympus-of-Hollywood cast headlined by Matt Damon as Odysseus and supported by Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Elliot Page, Tom Holland, and Robert Pattinson, among others.While its current Rotten Tomatoes score of 96% already exceeds that of any previous Nolan film, it’s also aiming for an epic opening weekend domestic box office of $100 million, which would eclipse the debut of the director’s previous hit, Oppenheimer.It’s about how it was madeIn the age of AI-assisted production, the auteur director opted to shoot scenes on location across the Mediterranean, with the cast and crew spending days on a reconstructed Viking ship in the open seas. It’s also the first feature film shot entirely on Imax 70mm film, Nolan’s preferred instrument that affords the maximum resolution possible:People who casually drop the phrase mise-en-scène in conversation will likely insist on seeing the film at one of only 25 movie theaters in the US equipped to handle the format.But they may have to pay an eBay reseller $1,000 for a seat (on top of $70 for a novelty Trojan Horse popcorn bucket with a hidden compartment in the crotch): Even some 3am Imax showtimes are sold out this weekend.There are also battles on smaller screens. Some conservative online commentators, including Elon Musk, have accused Nolan of prioritizing diversity over faithfulness to Homer’s text. The director dismissed the pre-premiere criticism as “irrelevant.”Wide-angle picture: Odysseus’s on-screen return to Ithaca is furthering a movie theater revival this summer, after years of falling ticket sales. Several recent blockbusters, ranging from Toy Story 5 and Michael to breakout horror hits like Backrooms and Obsession, have put the domestic box office on track to reach $10 billion this year for the first time since 2019, per Rentrak.—SK