Did your ticket to The Odyssey cost a bomb? Blame Hollywood's China problem

**Rahel Philipose** (0:00)
It probably hasn't missed your notice just how much people have been paying to watch The Odyssey in IMAX. When I was looking for tickets, the cheapest IMAX seats in Bangalore were selling at 1100 rupees for almost as long as a month. And I mean the really crappy ones right at the front. The one where you have to like crane your head back to look at the screen. The opening week even saw prices crossing 2000 rupees for the premium seats. And these were consistently sold out.
So it came as no surprise when last week, the epic action saga became the most successful IMAX movie in India ever. It made more than 60 crore rupees and just threw 34 IMAX screens in 17 days. This, by the way, despite the fact that the internet was flooded with jokes about how India's IMAX screens were not the true 70mm IMAX format. Some even called Indian IMAX theaters LIMAX and others couldn't help but find the irony in how The Odyssey is the first movie where people who couldn't pay high prices would literally see less because of how the movie is cropped on regular screens. And then, less than a week later, came Spider-Man Brand New Day, the latest in the franchise starring Tom Holland, which became the highest-grossing Hollywood movie in India after it pulled in 500-plus crore rupees of gross earnings in just 11 days. The sky-high success of both movies did not escape the market's attention. PVR Inox's stocks went up by almost 20% in July. The rally began post the release of The Odyssey, with the line continuing to tick up after the release of Spider-Man.
For PVR especially, this was just the cherry on top of what was already looking like the start of a good year. It had just posted its first quarterly profit in years, in 2026 And it had more tentpole blockbusters scheduled for the rest of the year, like Dune 3, Toxic and Avengers Doomsday. Now on paper, it does look like a recovery for PVR and every other theatre out there after a slow last couple of years. In fact, PVR had seen a net loss of nearly 280 crore rupees in FY25. But it looks like audiences are going back to the theatres and are more engaged than ever. PVR's net profit of 56.5 crore rupees in the quarter that ended in June 2026 was owed to an increase in ticket sales, which shows that more people were ready to pay high prices and maybe even watch a movie more than once.
But, there is more to the reasons behind the success of both of these blockbusters. Like Hollywood's increased focus on India as a market after having limited access to one of the biggest cinema markets in the world. And surprisingly enough, also the thing that should have been a problem, the screen shortage in India.
Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from The Ken. I'm your host, Rachel Varghese, and every day of the week, my co-host, Snigdha Sharma and I will bring you one new story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Wednesday, the 12th of August.
The Odyssey's promotional tour in India is probably one of the most viral ones in the country. The movie premiered in Mumbai at PVR Icon, which is often called one of India's most premium cinema experiences. And just a few hours before the premiere, Nolan, Matt Damon, who plays Odysseus in the saga, and Tom Holland, who plays his son in the movie, made what seemed like a random stop at Olympia Coffee House in Colaba. The obvious reference to the Greek Mount Olympus aside, the video of the moment went viral because of how culturally resonant it was. Three of Hollywood's most recognizable names were having Chai and Banmaska in the middle of Mumbai and of course this prompted several comments asking if the video was AI. The video of the moment, which was posted by Universal Pictures, the film's production company and distributor, and all the other digital content from the tour generated more than 50 million views on social media. Following this premiere, Nolan even wore an Ajrak tie, Ajrak being a Desi block print style, on the red carpet for the movie's premiere in New York. The India tour was marketed as Nolan's first ever official premiere in the country, and Mumbai was put right alongside locations like New York, London and Paris as a tour stop. But the increased attention and the buzz that generated in India soon ran into a problem. The demand for the movie was massive, and the fomo was real. Everyone wanted to watch the movie.
But the thing is, India's screen density remains among the lowest. Barely 7 screens per million of the population. And that is from a FICCI EY report for FY26.