There were more than 25,000 people queuing to get a ticket minutes after the sale went live
Tens of thousands of people have jumped onto the British Film Institute’s website after hearing that The Odyssey was going back on sale, yet minutes after, the tickets have sold out. The BFI IMAX announced it would release another batch of tickets for Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster after the unprecedented demand saw its initial sell-out.
The additional tickets went on sale at 2pm, July 31, and just ten minutes later, more than 25,000 people were already trying to log onto the BFI’s website, only to be told they were placed in a queue to even access the site.
The announcement comes after huge demand saw the Waterloo-based IMAX screen- Britain’s biggest cinema screen- sell out all 173 screenings of The Odyssey through to September 10.
Fans have taken to social media to share their frustration at the long wait times, with one commenter saying, “I’ve given up trying to get tickets to The Odyssey at BFI IMAX lol”, accompanied by a picture showing more than 25,000 people above them in the queue.
Weaved in between people claiming to sell the tickets on X, formerly known as Twitter, another commenter said: “25k in the queue for the BFI? I’m never seeing The Odyssey in 70mm”, with another commenter saying: “15,733 people ahead of me in the queue for additional Odyssey screenings just released at BFI IMAX….”
Some audience members had reportedly travelled from locations including Singapore, Los Angeles and Toronto to experience the film in IMAX 70mm.
BFI IMAX programme manager Madeleine Mullett previously said: “The extraordinary demand for our IMAX 70mm presentation of The Odyssey, experienced as intended by the filmmakers, is ultimate proof of the appetite audiences have for cinema at its most authentic.”
The film became a box-office record-breaker, taking in £198.2 million during its opening weekend and surpassing BFI IMAX’s previous advance-booking records, overtaking Dune: Part Two and Oppenheimer after grossing £750,000 in the 24 hours after tickets went on sale.
The BFI IMAX is one of three venues in the UK showing the film from a IMAX 70MM print.
