Maya Georgi
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'The Odyssey' Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures Well, it seems securing tickets for Christopher Nolan‘s upcoming epic The Odyssey turned into its own arduous journey. On Thursday, as tickets went on sale for special formats like IMAX and PLF, moviegoers faced long wait times in online queues, and in person outside of theaters, trying to secure tickets to the highly-anticipated blockbuster.
Unfortunately, ticketing platforms like AMC, Fandango, and Regal weren’t prepared to meet the demand audiences had for these formats. The AMC app and website were briefly paused, and when they did return, users faced hour-long queues before they could even open the app to find tickets. Once they did, some users weren’t able to reserve seats before hitting more glitches and error messages.
Details surrounding the making of the project have added to the fan frenzy. Nolan shot 2 million feet of IMAX film for The Odyssey in an impressive feat, and has since boasted the viewing experience of the formal special. “It’s really a wonderful way to retain the original image,” the director said in an interview with 60 Minutes.
Matt Damon, the star of the film, also complimented the visual aspect of the film in the same interview. “What separates him from other directors is the stories he wants to tell are incredibly ambitious and the way he wants to tell them is incredibly ambitious,” he said of Nolan, adding, “In this case, he wanted to do it 100 percent in IMAX, which had never been done.” Damon will star alongside several A-list actors, including Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Rob Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, and Charlize Theron.
Frustrated moviegoers took to social media to air their grievances with the ticketing fiasco. Some users compared the difficulty of securing tickets to that of battling in a Ticketmaster queue for live concert experiences. “So Christopher Nolan is the Taylor Swift of movie tickets now?!?” wrote one user on X, while another asked a similar question: “No bc why are odyssey tickets harder to get than Coachella tickets.” Another user decried the situation: “There’s something vexing about the way it’s being treated like a concert. There’s nothing normal about having to wait an hour to buy a movie ticket.”
It wasn’t all reserved for the online AMC experience. Some users online complained about an equally difficult experience securing tickets in person at theaters that screen special formats. “Reporting live from hell (the lines for odyssey tickets at amc lincoln),” one X user lamented. According to social media posts, people had to wait in long lines and also deal with downed servers at theater kiosks.
AMC wasn’t alone when it came to online glitches and server issues. Moviegoers who tried to purchase tickets through ticketing servicers Fandango and Regal also experienced site crashes, glitches, and delays for tickets to The Odyssey.
