Christopher Nolan’s new film ‘Odyssey’ smashes 560,000 advance tickets… ‘Spider-Man 4’ faces a fierce chase

The acclaimed master director ‘Christopher Nolan’’s ambitious new work ‘Odyssey’ is shaking up this summer’s theater scene after surpassing 560,000 advance tickets on its opening day alone. It’s effectively putting a strong brake on the previously unchallenged reign of ‘Spider-Man 4’.

The power of full-length IMAX shooting… Proven by the 560,000 advance-ticket milestone ‘Nolan syndrome’

According to results from the Korea Online Integrated Ticketing System (KOBIS) as of 5 p.m., ‘Odyssey’ recorded a real-time advance-ticket rate of 47.1% as of 7 a.m. that day, overtaking ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ (hereafter ‘Spider-Man 4’), which had been at 33.2%. Advance bookings from ticket-buying audiences alone total about 567,000. It falls somewhat short of the mega-hit record set by ‘Spider-Man 4’, which surpassed 900,000 tickets in the morning of its opening day, but it’s more than enough to prove the public’s explosive expectations.

Bringing the epic of ancient Greek Homer to the screen, ‘Odyssey’ delivers a dense, gripping depiction of the arduous journey back faced by ‘Odysseus’ (played by Matt Damon). Its most notable achievement is technological innovation. In what film studios say is the first time in movie history, the entire running time was shot on ‘IMAX film cameras’, weaving the majestic world of myth with overwhelming resolution and immersive, three-dimensional sound.

The ensemble shaped by top-tier Hollywood stars is another key draw. Led by ‘Matt Damon’ and ‘Anne Hathaway’, the film assembled an ultra-luxury lineup featuring ‘Tom Holland’, ‘Robert Pattinson’, ‘Zendaya’, and ‘Charlize Theron’. In particular, ‘Tom Holland’, who plays the role of Telemachus in the story, also holds the title role in ‘Spider-Man 4’, which is currently dominating the box office. That sets up a fascinating spectacle in which his two starring works clash head-on at once in the summer theater season.

The momentum behind the global box-office run has already passed a critical point. Less than a month after its North America wide release on the 17th of last month, it has already easily exceeded $900 million in cumulative global revenue (about 1.2 trillion won in Korean currency). With such astonishing global box-office earnings in tow, as ‘Odyssey’ enters the domestic theater market, attention is focused on whether this summer’s peak-season box-office final winner could be the new arrival.