Imax China is preparing to dedicate the vast majority of its nearly 800-screen network to Christopher Nolan‘s “The Odyssey” when the film opens in mainland China on Aug. 14, with CEO Daniel Manwaring telling Variety that audience anticipation for the release “is going to be enormous.”
“I’m expecting a very large majority of our entire network, if not all of our network, that first week will be playing ‘The Odyssey,'” Manwaring says.
Nolan and star Matt Damon are set to arrive in Beijing on July 30 for what Manwaring describes as the first-ever red carpet event held for a commercial film at the China National Film Museum in Beijing, a government institution that also hosted the original Chinese launch of “Avatar” in Imax’s early years in the country.
Two screenings are planned in Beijing, alongside a separate event at an Imax theater at Universal Beijing Resort. “We haven’t seen enthusiasm for a film like this in quite some time,” says Manwaring, noting that he’s personally been receiving “50 to 60 WeChats” every day of people requesting tickets for the movie.
Previews begin Aug. 1 and 2 in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, with one screening per day ahead of the wide release. Manwaring notes that Imax China is already “firing on all cylinders” thanks to strong pre-sales on “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” two weeks earlier, but he does distinguish between the two films’ audiences, calling “The Odyssey” “more of a first-tier city type of film” and comparing the geographic split to North America, where “the best performance of ‘Odyssey’ is most likely going to be New York, L.A., Chicago.”
