Nolan's "The Odyssey" Crosses $1.1 Billion With an Imax Record as Broadway Says Goodbye to the Jellicle Ball

Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" has passed $1.1 billion at the global box office, setting an all-time high for Imax revenue along the way, according to industry tracking.

The milestone confirms what exhibitors have argued since the film's release: audiences will still turn out at premium scale for original-format spectacle when a director stakes a claim on the big screen. Nolan shot the Homer adaptation for large-format projection, and Imax auditoriums have accounted for an outsized share of its grosses — now a record share in absolute terms.

For a theatrical business still recalibrating around streaming windows, a billion-dollar literary epic is the kind of data point that shapes greenlights. Studios have already accelerated their hunt for classics-with-scale material in its wake.

Broadway's farewell

The same Monday marked an ending on stage: "Cats: The Jellicle Ball," the celebrated ballroom-culture reimagining of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, played its final performance after a run that made it one of the most discussed revivals in recent Broadway memory.

Between a No. 1 album week for Ariana Grande's "Petal," a record-setting epic in cinemas and a landmark revival taking its bow, the culture business heads into late summer with an unusually crowded winners' circle.