--- title: "Imax's CEO says it's time to hike prices as tickets to 'The Odyssey' resell for $1,000" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/293659241.md" description: "IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond suggested raising ticket prices for 'The Odyssey' after scalpers resold them for $1,000. The film, shot entirely with IMAX cameras, generated record presales and a $52 million opening weekend. IMAX reported Q2 revenue of $103 million, beating estimates, and raised its full-year box-office forecast to $1.4 billion. Shares rose nearly 12% on the news." datetime: "2026-07-23T19:50:49.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/293659241.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293659241.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/293659241.md) --- # Imax's CEO says it's time to hike prices as tickets to 'The Odyssey' resell for $1,000 By Bill Peters Imax CEO Rich Gelfond called the action epic 'a transformational event in many ways we can see and many ways we can't yet predict' Anne Hathaway is among the stars of "The Odyssey." "Odyssey"\-mania has kicked into a new dimension. People are flying across the country to see filmmaker Christopher Nolan's epic fantasy blockbuster "The Odyssey," the first full-length movie shot only with Imax cameras. In New York, tickets to see the film in Imax's ultrahigh 70-millimeter resolution are being resold for hundreds of dollars. Even the limited-edition popcorn buckets modeled after the Imax camera Nolan used to film the movie are being marked up on eBay (EBAY). One of the takeaways for Imax (IMAX) itself? There's room to charge more to see such films. During the film-technology and camera maker's earnings call on Thursday, CEO Rich Gelfond noted the sky-high resale prices of tickets for the film, whose stars include Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway and Tom Holland. "The one place I think there is room to make the model better is on price," he said. "In fact, the exhibitors set the price and, frankly, with tickets at Lincoln Square being scalped for $1,000, I think there's room to move up the prices for a film." "We've let that be known to the exhibitors in the film area, but it's their decision," Gelfond continued. Much of Imax's earnings call focused on the impact of the film, which is based on ancient Greek poet Homer's epic. Gelfond said "The Odyssey" was "a transformational event in many ways we can see and many ways we can't yet predict." Imax CFO Natasha Fernandes said company box-office sales for the film, which hit U.S. theaters on July 17, had already run higher than $80 million in less than a week. The film is being shown in the Imax format as well as others. Opening-weekend box-office figures were a record $52 million, the company said. Management said the sales trends indicated a "historic Imax run ahead" for the film. "The launch of presales for 'The Odyssey' and Imax crashed every major ticketing platform in the United States, and 'The Odyssey' clocked our biggest presales of all time by a multiple of three," Gelfond said. "Fans are flying across countries, if not continents, to experience 'The Odyssey' and Imax 70 millimeter," he added. Gelfond said the company remained on track to put up a record $1.4 billion in box-office ticket receipts this year, helped by "The Odyssey" as well as "Dune: Part 3," which will be released in December. The latter film, he noted, was shot in part with Imax cameras. Shares of Imax were up nearly 12% on Thursday and were trading at just shy of $44. The stock is a bit off highs reached last month, when shares traded near $45. Imax shares are up nearly 19% so far this year. For the second quarter, Imax's revenue was $103 million, up 12% from a year before and above Wall Street's estimates for $95.5 million. The company reported adjusted earnings per share of 43 cents, up from 26 cents earned a year ago and above analysts' forecasts for 28 cents. The results arrived as the film industry looks for signs of a rebound, amid concerns about the broader shift to streaming and an ongoing retrenchment in Hollywood following strikes and the pandemic. Executives on Thursday noted that Imax box-office trends for the "The Odyssey's" opening weekend were 47% higher than for Nolan's last film, 2023's "Oppenheimer." Gelfond said that following the success of "Oppenheimer," Nolan wanted to shoot an entire film in Imax. The company, in response, designed cameras largely from scratch, as well as a new camera sound blimp for the film. Imax in recent years has benefited from other massive film successes, like last year's "Sinners," which also used some Imax cameras during shooting. Executives also noted that "Narnia: The Magician's Nephew," directed by Greta Gerwig, opens exclusively next year in theaters that use Imax, with a wider release to follow. "More filmmakers than ever are selecting Imax," Gelfond said. \-Bill Peters This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. 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