Much has been said about the financials for The Odyssey, but the Odyssey is concurrently garnering expected to make more profit in premium formats, as well as cinemas that will have the capability to show on film. Cinemas that have a projectionist will likely show The Odyssey for longer, Especially if they are newly trained, and if a location has had to pay for maintenance. There are close to 30 additional locations showing the Odyssey with many of these being the first time in close to a decade, or ever, when showing IMAX film. Kinepolis Brussels is notable with them doing significant marketing about their new installation, with it now being the biggest in Europe for IMAX 70mm. This makes it likely that there will be a vested interest for showings to continue on for a long time after. The BFI IMAX for instance had showings of Odyssey still up and selling well 3 months after release.
Furthermore,. within western markets, Spiderman Brand new Day does not have an IMAX release, nor does Avenger's Doomsday [this is why Disney invented there new 'infinity vision' format], with both The Odyssey and Dune securing exclusive IMAX windows in advance. This is also going to do further damage in the context of the 1.90:1 IMAX releases, especially when Dolby can do them better and the IMAX exclusive aspect ratio brand [again, 1.90:1] can be achieved with Dolby with a similarly sized screen. Going into the future, this is a test to see if superhero movies can do well without premium large formats [which most of their revenue is generated from standard multiplexes, whilst for say Project Hail Mary significant profit came from IMAX locations, with many sprouting difficulties getting tickets for 70mm and DL2 locations].
In the context of The Odyssey, this is 4 weeks and will likely be extended, with there being further showings likely added. It is entirely possible that film reels will be kept on site. The same happened with Oppenheimer where following its initial run, further January screenings were added going into the Oscar season and most IMAX installations are designed to have 2 individual reels on platters [with a set of 4 platters]. This exists because of IMAX 3d where two reels were used simultaneously, but it can also be used to have another reel ready to be used afterwards. This technique is still used, but is rare with few installations only using it to show multiple back to back showings with IMAX film with the main two locations to do this being in Melbourne and the BFI IMAX in London. The Indiana science museum also does this as well. However, these are the only locations that store their prints on site instead of sending them back. It was also commonly used in the past with double bills so it should not be noted as being exclusive to IMAX as whether it be 35mm or 16mm, if it was 3d it would have required a right-eye, left-eye set up.
Whether or not The Odyssey breaks even will depend on how long the film stays in cinema. Project Hail Mary for instance got an extended run, and frequently sold out. Multiple other movies have done similar, and releases are not uncommon. With the advertising of the Odyssey, it is likely to be a similar phenomena.
On the revenue side we all know that the distributor typically gets approx 50% of the box office with slightly more than 50% in NA, closer to 40% in the rest of the World (exc China) and for China, the distributor is expected to be grateful if it gets 20 to 25% of the box office. What's more rarely relevant is the IMAX cost with IMAX usually taking 10 to 15% of the gross box office and that comes (again usually) from the distributor's share of the pot, not the theatre owner's. So those enhanced IMAX ticket prices are rather less enhanced when it comes down to how much the distributor actually gets
The film also includes marketing for Dune Part 3 as there is a prologue, so that must be taking into account making things more complicated. But yes, IMAX does add on additional bonuses. The cost of projectionists, if the location has them, is also added on. It is rather complicated in the context of the Odyssey.
But, IMAX is also more likely to want to foot more of the bill from this for the servicing costs of cinemas as well as the development of new IMAX film cameras. These cameras will be very effectively going forward as they are significantly quieter meaning the format can be used for dialogue scenes, instead of primarily action and establishing shots. In the past, it would have been something akin to Vista Vision [8 perf 35mm] as we as standard 35mm used for establishing shots. This is why The Odyssey tickets [as well as Dune Part 3] tickets are becoming more expensive. But it seems that the demand is still there.
IMAX tickets have been really interesting though to look at. Case in point, I am going to compare 3 Liemax screens. These screens are of a similar size and the more expensive one is actually a dual laser set up, albeit with a 1.90 screen [this conversion being before single laser screens were available[. The cost is £8, for the single laser one it is £20, and for the Xenon one [the really shitty one, with the older sound units and the 2k xenon projector set up. So very dim and bad colours]. In this case, the cheapest option is the dual laser setup which would offer the brightest colours [it's not a 3d film so the overheating constraints are not present]. For you Americans, £10 is concurrently at 13.40$. Whilst standard tickets at the BFI IMAX are £26 and at the London Science Museum they can be bought for £20.
