Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ Leaving IMAX 70mm This Weekend as Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’ Takes Over

Avatar photoRobert Milaković
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Few cinematic formats inspire the kind of near-religious devotion that true IMAX 70mm evokes among film enthusiasts. The massive film stock, the notoriously heavy cameras, and the limited number of specially equipped theaters worldwide have made every 70mm release feel like a genuine event rather than just another trip to the movies. This exclusivity has made this summer’s biggest theatrical rollout hard to part with.

Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ has turned that format into the entire selling point of its release, with fans treating tickets like collector’s items for months. Now, that unusually long theatrical run is finally coming to an end, making way for a specific blockbuster ready to take its place.

According to industry tracker @GlobalBoxOffice, ‘The Odyssey’ will conclude its run in IMAX 70mm auditoriums this coming weekend, with Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’ set to take over those screens next week. The film’s extended theatrical window officially closes on September 30, and remaining ticket slots are reportedly heavily sold out as fans rush for one last chance to see it in true 70mm.

What makes ‘The Odyssey’ such a milestone is its distinction as the first commercial feature film shot entirely on true 15-perforation, 70mm IMAX cameras, a format known for being heavy, loud, and requiring frequent reloading during production. Nolan’s Greek epic, based on Homer’s tale of Odysseus’s journey home after the Trojan War, was released on a very limited number of screens capable of projecting that format, with only 25 theaters in the United States and 41 worldwide able to show it as intended.

The film’s ensemble cast reads like a who’s who of contemporary Hollywood, featuring Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, and Jon Bernthal. This star power, combined with the novelty of the format itself, fueled a theatrical run unlike almost anything else released this year, with tickets for early IMAX 70mm screenings famously going on sale a full year in advance and selling out almost immediately.

Screenshot 2026 07 25 at 11 02 38 The Odyssey 2026 Rotten Tomatoes

Next in line for those same IMAX 70mm screens is ‘Digger,’ the apocalyptic satire from Oscar winner Alejandro González Iñárritu, starring Tom Cruise as an extravagant oil baron named Digger Rockwell. The film has already sparked some of the most polarizing early reactions of the fall movie season, with critics divided between calling it a “brave and gorgeous art film” and dismissing it as “baffling” and “unpleasant.” Regardless of where viewers land on that spectrum, ‘Digger’ is set to inherit some of the most coveted theatrical real estate in the country.

There is a certain symmetry in this transition, with two of the year’s most talked-about, formally ambitious studio releases passing the torch on the same limited network of specialty screens. For exhibitors, this represents a rare moment where two major awards-adjacent releases have consecutive claims on the format’s most prized real estate, highlighting the competitive nature of the push for prestige theatrical exclusivity.

For Nolan fans who haven’t yet experienced a 70mm screening, the window is closing quickly, with less than two weeks left before ‘The Odyssey’ vanishes from those auditoriums for good. Given the film’s cultural momentum throughout its run, that closing date is likely to trigger one final wave of ticket-buying urgency before Cruise and Iñárritu’s divisive vision takes its place.

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