At 2:45 a.m. on a recent weekday, the AMC Lincoln Square on Manhattan’s Upper West Side showed none of the usual signs of winding down for the night.  

Hours after the city that never sleeps had mostly gone home to bed, a crowd of eager New Yorkers was standing in line to buy buckets of popcorn. 

Groups of happy moviegoers were hanging out in the lobby after earlier showings of “The Odyssey,” chatting, while others headed up the escalators, Red Bulls in hand, to the theater’s IMAX auditorium — pumped to watch a nearly three-hour Christopher Nolan film in the pre-dawn hours. 

The real-life scene was strange enough — particularly in 2026, long after the last of the all-nighter grindhouses of 42nd Street bit the dust and midnight premieres became a quaint relic, and, of course, not all that many years after the movie theater was deemed dead.

Which is not entirely wrong, considering the AMC Kips Bay location will close later this year thanks to the property owner’s decision to early terminate the lease.

Stranger still were the lengths people were willing to go to snag a seat — with some paying thousands on the resale market. 

It’s official: film culture has entered its witching-hour era — with people rearranging sleep, work, transit, caffeine and even common sense just to experience a film on the right screen, like this one.

And at theaters like the AMC Lincoln Square — people are fighting to get in.

Joe Colón, 29, a marketing specialist living in the city, slept from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. the day before his late-night screening of “The Odyssey” and spent the evening out on the town, arriving at the Upper West Side theater 15 minutes before the 3 a.m. show began. 

“My faith never wavered,” he told The Post afterward, when asked if he’d remained awake throughout. “It also helps that it’s pretty hard to fall asleep in the biggest IMAX theater in the country with some of the loudest speakers I’ve ever heard.”

Colón said he’d seen people on TikTok “legitimately buying wheelchairs” — even “Seinfeld” never went this far — in order to sit in accessible spots at sold-out showings in the packed house.  

“I low-key respect the commitment,” he admitted. “That is insane.” 

Yes, it is. Movie fans have officially lost their minds. 

This isn’t the first comeback that moviegoing has experienced since 2020 that can be attributed, in part, to Nolan — those who remember the summer of Barbenheimer, back in 2023, can attest. 

But that cultural phenomenon has nothing on the one surrounding Nolan’s latest at Lincoln Square — a schedule-wrecking, ticket-scrambling craze that has rolled straight from the ancient eastern Mediterranean into the mythical desert set of “Dune: Part Three.”   

Earlier this week, fully grown adults trying to score coveted IMAX 70mm tickets for the latest film in the revived sci-fi franchise formed a line wrapped around the block — with some arriving at the crack of dawn and others sacrificing a workday for the chance at an opening-night viewing since the uptown theater is the only one in NYC to offer this IMAX size.

An opening night that won’t happen, mind you, until December. 

As they did for “The Odyssey,” digital ticketing platforms buckled under demand, and scarce premium-format tickets began showing up on resale sites. 

Some eBay listings were asking close to $1000 for two last-row Lincoln Square tickets.

On social media, users also circulated claims that one buyer had reportedly walked away with roughly 80 “Dune” tickets, prompting other moviegoers to demand that AMC crack down on bulk buying before blockbuster tickets become another resale free-for-all.

AMC CEO Adam Aron acknowledged the issue in a post on X, writing of the “Dune” ticket launch: “We thought we were ready, but we weren’t.”

Ryan Noonan, vice president of corporate communications and public relations at AMC Theatres, promised to The Post that these round-the-clock showings aren’t a gimmick, but rather a necessity.  

“It’s not the norm, and it’s not feasible at every location,” he said, “but there’s always a little extra magic when a title resonates so strongly with moviegoers that our traditional operating hours aren’t enough to meet demand.”

Lincoln Square has become its own special case, Noonan said — the location is used to these late-night showings in its IMAX 70mm auditorium, but typically on opening weekend only. 

With “The Odyssey,” the late nights have kept going and going. 

“Several weekends removed from the film’s debut, and we’re still operating those overnight hours on weekends … demand continues to support it,” Noonan explained. 

Ross Melnick, Dick Wolf Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center and Presidential Chair in Media Studies, said the scramble is all about the opportunity to see a talked-about film in a premium large-format — which creates a scarcity in places like New York. 

“In a world consumed by digital screens, content is everywhere but context is everything,” Melnick said. 

And where there’s scarcity in New York, there’s obsession.  

“It’s rare that moviegoing is treated like a rock concert today,” Melnick said, but the old “Will we get in?” feeling is part of what once made going to the movies thrilling. Theater history has always understood that the building matters, too. Melnick pointed to the old exhibition line from the late industry titan Marcus Loew: “We sell tickets to theaters, not movies.”  

Paul de Lumen, assistant professor of film, animation and new media at the University of Tampa, said that audiences are once again craving shared experiences around the genre — after years of watching movies casually and privately at home.

He said blockbuster moviegoing has started borrowing the scarcity and FOMO usually associated with concerts, major sports events, and limited drops.

“The thrill of securing seats and seeing a limited release film is providing just as big of a rush as getting the most exclusive sneakers or concert tickets,” he said.

Christian Probst, 32, a Broadway actor currently appearing in Moulin Rouge! The Musical, told The Post he grabbed two Odyssey seats at Lincoln Square in early July before he even knew who would take the second one.

That person turned out to be his friend Simone Policano, 32, an actor, writer and small business co-founder now living in Bushwick. When Probst told her the ticket was for a 2 a.m. IMAX 70mm screening, she didn’t hesitate to say yes.

After Probst finished his Broadway show, the two met at Policano’s childhood apartment on the Upper West Side and took a power nap from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.

“We were basically children before a red-eye,” she said.

Probst worried he might fade after performing that night. Instead, the movie and the atmosphere kept him wide awake.

“I didn’t even yawn once,” he said.

Once inside Lincoln Square, Policano found what she described as a “pajama-chic” crowd. The theater was also doing late-night maintenance, with staff moving ladders and equipment through the lobby.

“Which I guess could be normal for 2 a.m.,” she said, “but this time they certainly had an audience.”

For her, that absurdity was part of the whole appeal.

“The movie is incredible, don’t get me wrong, and unfortunately the IMAX 70mm screen really does make a difference,” she said. “But I would’ve chosen 2 a.m. even if a normal showtime had been available. You gotta do it for the lore.”

By the time they stepped back outside, the city was just waking up. Policano left around 5:30 a.m. and e-biked uptown as the sky brightened block by block. Probst rode his bike through the empty streets from Lincoln Center to Union Square, calling it his own “odyssey” home.

“It really was emotional,” Probst said. “It made me fall in love with this city.”