Moviegoers line up at a IMAX ticket hall in Dongguan, South China's Guangdong Province, on August 15, 2026. Photo: VCG

Christopher Nolan's much-anticipated The Odyssey officially opened in China on Friday, quickly becoming one of the hottest movies of the summer movie season, with moviegoers scrambling for premium IMAX screenings and some even traveling to other cities for better viewing experiences with better screens. 

Meanwhile, domestic hit Once Upon a Time in the Middle East has grossed more than 850 million yuan ($126 million), adding to the intense competition for audiences during China's packed summer movie season.

The Odyssey, which had already held limited previews in China, had grossed an estimated 240 million yuan as of Sunday, according to ticketing platform Maoyan. Its projected box office is expected to surpass 700 million yuan, potentially exceeding the 452million yuan Oppenheimer grossed in the Chinese mainland.

The Odyssey is the first feature film shot entirely using IMAX cameras and is being presented in IMAX 70mm at select theaters. Its large-format cinematography and expansive visual style have made the IMAX experience a major selling point for Chinese moviegoers.

Demand for premium IMAX screenings was already intense during the film's previews, with some theaters reporting full occupancy. After its official release, that enthusiasm has shown no sign of easing.

In Beijing, one longtime Nolan fan had been following the film since its release and had repeatedly tried to secure a seat at the China National Film Museum's IMAX GT theater, one of the most sought-after formats for the movie. 

Unable to get a ticket, the moviegoer eventually chose another well-reviewed IMAX theater and paid 180 yuan for a seat, three times the price of a normal seat, that was not particularly well positioned.

The theater was nearly full when the audience arrived, the moviegoers were largely quiet as they waited for the screening to begin. But the large-format presentation delivered the immersive audiovisual experience the audience had been anticipating.

Another moviegoer, Lin Xiao, managed to attend an IMAX screening during the previews and also noted the high attendance. She told the Global Times that audiences had already formed a long line outside the theater before the movie began.

On Chinese lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, some moviegoers have posted about traveling to other cities because their hometowns do not have IMAX GT screenings. Some have even taken high-speed trains specifically to watch The Odyssey in what they consider a better theater.

Zhang Peng, a cultural researcher and associate professor at Nanjing Normal University, told the Global Times that The Odyssey's strong reception and high attendance in China demonstrate that high-quality content, combined with the rare and highly immersive experience offered by premium formats such as IMAX GT, remains a key competitive advantage for cinemas. 

The film's strong quality, coupled with its cutting-edge large-format presentation, creates a theatrical experience that cannot be easily replicated at home, showing that when cinemas can offer a sufficiently distinctive immersive experience, the big screen retains its unique social and ceremonial appeal, with audiences willing to pay a premium for such exclusivity, said Zhang. 

However, film critic Liu Nandou offered a restrained forecast, predicting its Chinese mainland gross at 300 million to 800 million yuan ($41 million to $110 million). 

"Nolan's films have a ceiling," he told the Global Times in a previous interview. "The threshold for understanding The Odyssey is extremely high, and it doesn't fit the broad popcorn audience."

The appeal of premium formats is not limited to The Odyssey. Several films in China's summer movie season have also embraced IMAX and other high-end formats, giving audiences more options for immersive theatrical experiences.

Once Upon a Time in the Middle East, which has grossed more than 850 million yuan at the box office and is projected to surpass 2.5 billion yuan, according to Maoyan, was specially shot for IMAX. 

Rather than relying on grand battle scenes, the film is set almost entirely in a small Chinese restaurant in a war-torn Middle East town in 2003. Played by Shen Teng, Xu Fu is a chef looking to make a living abroad and find a quiet life. But when war suddenly erupts, he and restaurant manager Ma Junsheng, played by Jiang Qiming, choose to keep the kitchen running, serving authentic Chinese dishes and creating a safe haven for local civilians and children amid the chaos.

The film uses IMAX's large screen to present the warmth of everyday life and the details of the restaurant with greater clarity and immersion.

The Odyssey, meanwhile, uses IMAX film cameras to bring the epic scale of Homer's poem to the big screen with sweeping and visually striking imagery. All Wishes Come True! is also available in premium formats including IMAX, Dolby and CINITY, using enhanced audiovisual technology to amplify its visual effects and emotional atmosphere and help drive box-office growth, according to China's state media CCTV.

As more films made for premium formats continue to draw audiences, high-end theaters equipped with IMAX, CINITY and other technologies are seeing increased demand, giving moviegoers a wider range of viewing options.

Film industry experts said audiences are no longer satisfied simply with being able to watch a movie, but increasingly want to "watch a good movie" and "experience a film in an immersive environment."