Disney & Spider-Man Lose IMAX Spots to Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’

Hollywood’s summer of 2026 is shaping up to be a major clash between two blockbusters led by the same actor. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey opens on July 17, followed two weeks later by Tom Holland’s fourth Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The problem? IMAX is all in on Nolan, and Disney’s not getting a slice of those massive screens.

This came out during an IMAX investor presentation that showed The Odyssey occupying every IMAX screen from its release until August 14, when another film, Flowervale Street, arrives. That means Brand New Day—a big-budget Marvel entry—won’t be playing in IMAX at all during its first weeks. For fans of spectacle, that’s a blow, though not an unexpected one. IMAX and Christopher Nolan are practically joined at the hip at this point.

Nolan started using IMAX cameras back in 2008 for The Dark Knight. Since then, most of his major films have used the format. The investor materials even featured his photo in the section titled “The IMAX Experience.” No wonder tickets for The Odyssey sold out at several theaters almost a year before release. This will be the first movie ever shot entirely with IMAX cameras, not just partially. Those cameras are enormous and expensive, so it’s no small feat. For a movie setting that kind of record, a month-long exclusive IMAX run feels like the least the format could do.

Disney doesn’t seem to have made a strong case to IMAX for Brand New Day. The presentation listed which upcoming movies were actually filmed with IMAX cameras, and several Disney titles—including Predator: Badlands and Avengers: Doomsday, didn’t make that list. IMAX may be tired of giving prime real estate to studios that fake the format instead of filming with it. With The Odyssey already finished and Brand New Day still in production, it’s clear which one IMAX thinks will look better on their screens.

If Disney hopes to change anything, it could bump the release date, but that seems unlikely. IMAX screens are limited, and Dolby just doesn’t carry the same weight with moviegoers. Still, fans of Tom Holland won’t lose either way. The actor stars in both films—he’s Odysseus’ son Telemachus in The Odyssey and, of course, the web-slinger himself in Brand New Day. No matter which movie sells more tickets, Holland comes out on top.

He’s not the only one doing double duty. Jon Bernthal, who returns as the Punisher in Brand New Day, also appears alongside Holland in The Odyssey. The two actually worked together years ago while filming Pilgrimage, where they helped each other record their Marvel audition tapes. Zendaya is in both films too, reprising MJ in Brand New Day and taking on a new, still-secret role in The Odyssey. The duo also got engaged this year, giving the press one more reason to tie their names together next summer.

So, while Disney might lose the IMAX race, audiences are the real winners. July 2026 will bring back Spider-Man, another round of Nolan’s grand-scale filmmaking, and Tom Holland in two of the year’s most talked-about roles. The Odyssey hits theaters on July 17, followed by Spider-Man: Brand New Day on July 31.

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