Multiple major ticketing platforms experienced technical difficulties when advance tickets for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey became available to purchase. AMC, Fandango, and Regal all reported extended wait times and site glitches as customers attempted to buy tickets for the upcoming film, which is scheduled for release on July 17.
The problems affected moviegoers across different platforms at the same time. Users trying to access AMC's website and app encountered technical issues that prevented smooth ticket purchases. Fandango and Regal customers faced similar challenges, with both services experiencing slowdowns and errors during the high-demand sales period.
The Odyssey marks Nolan's venture into Greek mythology on a major studio scale. The film adapts Homer's ancient epic and stars Matt Damon as Odysseus. The cast includes Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Tom Holland as Telemachus, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, and Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy. Composer Ludwig Göransson created the film's score.
In recent interviews, Nolan explained his attraction to the source material. "You're always looking for something that hasn't been done before," Nolan told Stephen Colbert. "Greek mythology hadn't really been done on a kind of A-budget, big studio, throw everything at the screen and see what sticks kind of way. It's just one of the great adventure stories and I really wanted to see it done justice."
The film will feature many of the epic's most celebrated moments and characters. Trailers released since December have shown glimpses of the Cyclops, the whirlpool Charybdis, Odysseus summoning spirits of the dead, and the famous wooden horse. The trailers also feature Odysseus' loyal dog, Argos.
Nolan has long been interested in adapting Greek epics. He was originally lined up to direct Troy after Wolfgang Petersen's 2004 film, but when that project fell through, Nolan instead went on to direct Batman Begins, which launched him into the major league of Hollywood directing. However, Nolan never abandoned his desire to make a Greek epic. "It was a world I was very interested to explore," he told Empire magazine. "So it's been at the back of my mind for a very long time."
The Odyssey's narrative complexity likely appealed to Nolan, who has built his career exploring nonlinear storytelling. "It's the original non-linear narrative," Nolan observed to Colbert. The director made striking use of nonlinear narratives in his breakthrough film Memento and has continued this approach throughout his career with films like Inception, Interstellar, and Tenet.
Ticketing crashes have become increasingly common for highly anticipated film releases in recent years. Such technical difficulties typically resolve within hours as companies add server capacity and clear backlogs. Representatives for the affected ticketing companies have not yet issued statements about the technical difficulties or provided timelines for full service restoration.