"The Odyssey."Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures"The Odyssey" had a massive opening weekend in theaters, taking in $264.1 million globally.Over 20% of sales came from IMAX tickets.IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond spoke to Business Insider about the company's recent successes.Christopher Nolan's latest epic, "The Odyssey," had an opening weekend at the box office worthy of the gods.The movie, based on the centuries-old poem by Homer, took in the third-best domestic opening of the year with $124.5 million and $264.1 million globally.That's not a shock to most in the business. Not only does the movie feature a star-studded cast (Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, and Zendaya), but it's helmed by an Oscar-winning director with a fan base of his own. Another reason for the film's success is IMAX, Nolan's preferred format for his work.For years, Nolan made it his mission to shoot portions of his films, from his Batman trilogy to his Oscar-winning "Oppenheimer," so that they are formatted for bigger screens. With "The Odyssey," he went a step further, pushing IMAX to build a quieter version of its noisy camera to shoot the entire movie."When he called me, I always try to make our organization do what he wants," IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond told Business Insider of Nolan on Monday. "My answer to all of his questions is, 'Let's try to make it happen.'"IMAX GT Cinema in Guiyang, Guizhou Province of China; there are 800 IMAX screens in China.China News Service/China News Service/Getty ImagesWith "The Odyssey" touted as the first movie ever shot entirely on IMAX cameras, it was a success for IMAX before a single frame was shown. Almost a year before its opening, presales of IMAX 70mm showings sold out within an hour, earning the movie $1.5 million.Things only got better once the movie came out. The company reported earning $51.8 million globally, more than 20% of the movie's worldwide box office. Of that, IMAX 70mm screenings generated an astounding $6.3 million from just 41 screens worldwide, an average of $153,000 per screen.Gelfond spoke to Business Insider about the box-office success of "The Odyssey," why it's so expensive to create IMAX 70mm theaters, and the report that the company is for sale.Business Insider: "The Odyssey" did huge numbers at the weekend box office. Was it beyond what you expected?Rich Gelfond: Out of everyone at IMAX, I was the most bullish. I went into this thinking it was going to be bigger than what everyone else thought it was going to be, but some of the craziness and competition for IMAX tickets is even more extreme than I could have imagined. Is there one box-office stat that surprised you?The BFI in London is sold out through week six, and they put week seven and eight tickets on sale, and they have sold out a lot of those shows already. This is two months from now!The one number that jumps out to me is IMAX accounting for over 20% of the movie's global opening. This isn't something that happened overnight. IMAX has been building its brand for decades, but it's also how Christopher Nolan has elevated the use of it. Do you think you'll ever have that unique collaboration you have with Nolan with another filmmaker?Chris is a unicorn, and it takes time and collaboration, and really, it's almost like a team. Learning to anticipate what the other one wants. So right now, it's a very special relationship.But I do think there will be other relationships. They will be different, but I think they can be equally successful. I'll give you examples. We did "Sinners" with Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan, we also worked with Michael on "Creed III," which he directed, and we're going to do "The Thomas Crown Affair" with him early next year, which he also directed.Denis Villeneuve, we did "Dune 2," we're doing "Dune 3," his next film is James Bond, and we'll see where that goes. These are really gifted filmmakers we're working with.Christopher Nolan on the set of "The Odyssey" with the IMAX camera.Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal PicturesDid you ever anticipate that Nolan would come to you and ask that you build a camera so he could film an entire movie with it?It didn't shock me. Chris is a very innovative director always looking for the next thing. So when he told me he was running the camera backward for some scenes in "Tenet," was I shocked? No. When he said he dropped one of them out of a helicopter or floated them in the water, does that shock me? No. He's always trying new things.Have other filmmakers come to you and said they want to shoot their entire movie with the IMAX camera Nolan used?Yes. Chris was filming a year ago, and in that time, people have approached us about that camera. And Denis [Villeneuve] used the camera in "Dune 3" for a few sequences. The IMAX 70mm projection has become a hot ticket, especially for Christopher Nolan movies. There are only 41 theaters in the world that have them. Is there an interest in upping that number?Definitely, there is an interest.There are
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