We all knew that when tickets to see Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey went on sale, it was going to be a problem. The Odyssey is the first feature film ever to be shot entirely for IMAX, and with only a handful of theaters across the world where the film can be seen in that format, supply was not going to match demand. Especially in cities that love movies. Cities like Los Angeles. Thursday morning, armed with a laptop and a prayer, I set out to get 70mm IMAX tickets to see The Odyssey. Because of the nature of my job, odds are that I will probably (fingers crossed) get a chance to see it early, so I was not targeting tickets for opening weekend. I figured I’d go for the Monday after. Demand would be a little lighter, and since I’m an old pro at online drops, my thought was that it would take five minutes, and I could go on with my day. Almost two hours later, I was sort of successful and discovered something I wasn’t aware of. Ticketing websites have a lot of error messages. Like, a lot. I’m not gonna say my journey to get these tickets makes me like Odysseus, but, you know, there are parallels.
Living in Los Angeles, we are blessed with many great movie theaters. Not as many as we’ve had in the past, but still a lot. However for personal convenience and because, in my opinion, it’s the best one, I decided to take aim at a 70mm IMAX screening at the Universal Cinema AMC at CitiWalk Hollywood. That was, of course, my biggest hurdle. Many LA film fans share my sentiment, and tickets at that specific theater were going to be difficult. But, again, I wasn’t going for opening weekend. That would help my odds. In theory.
