Disney’s Sci-Fi Epic Becomes the Biggest Original IP Launch in a Decade
By Kayla Paval
Distinguished Magazine — Box Office and Industry Report
LOS ANGELES — Atlantis Protocol, Disney’s adaptation of Haja Mo’s bestselling novel, opened to a staggering $127.3 million domestic in its first weekend across 4,012 theaters in the United States and Canada, making it the largest opening weekend for an original intellectual property since Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar and the biggest non-sequel, non-franchise debut since James Cameron’s Avatar in 2009.
The film, directed by Helena Cortez and starring Royce Lyla as Helena Atlas, the last surviving Atlantean, and British actor Edmund Hale as archaeologist Dr. Miles Shaw, earned a certified 98% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 347 reviews, with an audience score of 97%. CinemaScore awarded it a rare A+ grade, a distinction shared by fewer than ninety films in the service’s forty-year history.
The global picture is even more extraordinary. Atlantis Protocol opened simultaneously in 88 international markets, grossing an additional $214.6 million overseas for a combined worldwide opening weekend of $341.9 million. Industry analysts at BoxOffice Pro, Deadline, and Variety are now projecting a total worldwide theatrical run between $1.4 billion and $1.6 billion, with a median estimate of $1.5 billion that would place it among the twenty highest-grossing films in cinema history.
David Hollis, Disney’s president of theatrical distribution, called the opening “historic and humbling” in a statement released Sunday evening. “Atlantis Protocol proves that audiences are hungry for original stories told with ambition, intelligence, and emotional power. This is the kind of film that reminds people why they go to theaters.”
This is a film based on a novel that was not a pre-existing cultural phenomenon. It is not a sequel. It is not a reboot. It is not a spinoff, a prequel, or an adaptation of a comic book, a video game, or a theme park ride. It is an original science fiction story by an author most mainstream audiences had never heard of before the marketing campaign began, and it just outperformed the opening weekends of films with decades of brand recognition behind them.
The industry is in shock. And the question everyone is asking is: how?
The Domestic Breakdown: Every Format, Every Showtime, Sold Out
Atlantis Protocol opened on 4,012 screens domestically, including 642 IMAX locations, 812 premium large format screens (Dolby Cinema, ScreenX, 4DX, RPX), and 2,558 standard digital screens.
The IMAX performance was the headline story of the weekend. Of the $127.3 million domestic total, IMAX accounted for $38.7 million, representing 30.4% of the total gross from just 16% of the screens. This is the highest IMAX percentage for any non-sequel release in the format’s history and the third-highest IMAX opening weekend ever, behind only Avatar: The Way of Water and Avengers: Endgame.
IMAX showtimes sold out within hours of going on sale three weeks before release. In major markets including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Atlanta, and Miami, IMAX theaters added 7 AM and midnight screenings to meet demand. Several locations reported selling out every showing for the entire opening weekend by Wednesday night, two days before the film’s Friday release. AMC Theatres reported that Atlantis Protocol generated more advance IMAX ticket sales than any film in the chain’s history that was not part of an established franchise.
The premium format numbers across Dolby Cinema and other PLF screens were equally impressive. Dolby Cinema locations, which offer enhanced sound and picture quality with reclining seats and higher ticket prices, accounted for $19.1 million of the domestic total. Combined premium formats, IMAX plus Dolby plus other PLF, represented 45.3% of the opening weekend gross, a figure that underscores how heavily audiences prioritized the theatrical experience over convenience.
Standard digital screens performed strongly as well, with per-screen averages of $27,200, well above the industry benchmark for a wide release. Fandango reported that Atlantis Protocol was the number one advance ticket seller on its platform for three consecutive weeks leading up to release, driven primarily by audience interest in the IMAX and Dolby Cinema formats.
Friday contributed $41.8 million (including $16.2 million from Thursday preview screenings that began at 6 PM). Saturday jumped to $47.1 million, a 12.6% increase over Friday that defied the typical pattern where Saturday numbers are flat or slightly below Friday. Sunday held at $38.4 million, producing a Friday-to-Sunday multiplier of 3.04, indicating exceptionally strong word-of-mouth.
That Saturday increase is the number that has analysts buzzing. In a typical wide release, Saturday either matches Friday or dips slightly. When Saturday exceeds Friday by more than 10%, it signals that audiences who saw the film on opening night are calling friends, posting on social media, and urgently recommending the experience. The Saturday bump for Atlantis Protocol suggests that the film’s emotional impact, particularly the final act, is generating the kind of person-to-person advocacy that money cannot buy and marketing cannot manufacture.
The International Picture: 88 Markets, One Global Event
Atlantis Protocol opened simultaneously in 88 international territories, and the results confirm that the film’s appeal is not limited to English-speaking markets. The international gross of $214.6 million breaks down across regions as follows.
China led all international markets with $52.3 million across 14,200 screens, the largest opening weekend for an original Western IP in China since Inception. The film benefited from a strong marketing campaign emphasizing the visual spectacle and the environmental themes, both of which resonate powerfully with Chinese audiences. Social media platform Douban registered 340,000 user ratings by Sunday evening, with an average score of 9.1 out of 10. Multiple Chinese entertainment commentators described it as the most visually beautiful film ever screened in Chinese IMAX theaters. The Maoyan ticketing platform projected a total China run of $180 million to $220 million.
The United Kingdom delivered $18.7 million, the largest opening for an original IP in British box office history. Miles Shaw’s identity as a British archaeologist based in London, combined with the British Museum scenes in the prologue and epilogue, created a strong local connection. BFI IMAX at Waterloo, the largest IMAX screen in the UK, sold out every showing through the following Thursday within hours of tickets going on sale.
South Korea opened to $14.9 million, driven by the country’s dominant IMAX and premium format culture. Korean audiences showed particular enthusiasm for the film’s visual design and the Helena character, with social media discussion focusing heavily on the floating gardens sequence and the Silence Protocol ending.
Japan grossed $13.2 million in its opening weekend, a remarkable figure for a non-anime, non-franchise Western film in a market that historically favors domestic productions. Japanese film critics drew comparisons to the emotional storytelling of Studio Ghibli, particularly in the relationship between Helena and her memories of her parents. Toho Cinemas reported that several Tokyo IMAX locations experienced what staff described as communal emotional responses during the final act, with audience members openly weeping and remaining in their seats through the end credits.
India opened to $11.8 million, a record for an original English-language IP in the Indian market. The film’s themes of climate change, corporate greed, and the moral responsibility of technological advancement resonated strongly with Indian audiences, as did the love story between Miles and Helena. Multiplex chains PVR Inox and Cinepolis reported that IMAX and 4DX screenings were sold out across all major metros including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Chennai. Bollywood director Rajkumar Hirani publicly praised the film, calling it the most emotionally honest science fiction film he had ever seen.
Australia and New Zealand combined for $9.4 million, with Jace Theron’s Australian identity providing a strong local hook. German-speaking markets (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) grossed $8.7 million. France delivered $8.6 million. Brazil opened to $7.3 million. Mexico grossed $6.1 million. The Middle East and North Africa region combined for $5.8 million, led by the UAE and Saudi Arabia, where IMAX theaters in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Riyadh reported complete sellouts.
Additional notable openings included Spain ($4.9 million), Italy ($4.7 million), Indonesia ($4.2 million), the Philippines ($3.8 million), Turkey ($3.1 million), Thailand ($2.9 million), Singapore ($2.7 million), Malaysia ($2.4 million), Poland ($2.1 million), the Netherlands ($1.9 million), Sweden ($1.6 million), Colombia ($1.5 million), Taiwan ($1.4 million), Argentina ($1.3 million), South Africa ($1.1 million), Chile ($980,000), Peru ($870,000), Vietnam ($840,000), Hong Kong ($790,000), Norway ($720,000), Denmark ($680,000), Finland ($510,000), Portugal ($490,000), Israel ($470,000), Ireland ($430,000), Czech Republic ($390,000), Greece ($370,000), Romania ($340,000), Hungary ($310,000), New Zealand ($290,000 standalone), and Egypt ($270,000).
The consistent pattern across all 88 markets is the same: IMAX and premium format screenings sold out first, standard screenings followed, and word-of-mouth drove Saturday numbers above Friday numbers. The film’s emotional impact, particularly the final act, transcended language and cultural barriers. Reports from theaters in non-English-speaking markets describe the same audience behavior documented in domestic screenings: silence during the Silence Protocol, audible crying during the song, audiences remaining in their seats through the credits, and spontaneous applause at the end.
What Happened Inside the Theaters
I want to move beyond the numbers, because the numbers, while extraordinary, do not capture what is actually happening in these theaters.
Atlantis Protocol is producing audience behavior that theater operators, film critics, and industry veterans describe as unprecedented in the modern era. The word that comes up most frequently in conversations with exhibitors is communal. This is a communal experience in a way that films have not been for a decade or more.
AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron, in a statement released Saturday afternoon, said: “We are seeing something we have not seen since the peak of the Marvel era, and in some ways, it exceeds it. Audiences are not just watching this film. They are experiencing it together. Theater managers across the country are reporting that audiences applaud during the Amazon sequence, gasp during the Atlantis reveal, physically recoil during the creature attacks, cry during the floating gardens, and sit in complete, voluntary silence for thirty seconds after the screen goes black. I have been in this business for a long time. I have never heard of an audience choosing to sit in silence together.”
Regal Cinemas reported similar observations. A manager at the Regal Union Square in New York told Deadline: “I have been in this building for eleven years. I have never had a screening where nobody left during the credits. Not once. Atlantis Protocol has done it every single showing since Thursday night. People are not leaving. They are sitting in the dark, processing what they saw, and then they clap. Every time. It is like clockwork.”
The IMAX experience is the primary driver of repeat viewings, which are already registering in the data. Fandango reported that 23% of Sunday ticket purchases for Atlantis Protocol were from users who had already purchased tickets for a previous showing, suggesting that nearly one in four Sunday audience members was seeing the film for the second time in the same weekend. If this repeat viewing rate sustains through the second weekend, it would be the highest in IMAX history for any film outside of Avatar.
Social media amplified the effect. By Saturday afternoon, “Atlantis Protocol” was the number one trending topic on X (formerly Twitter) in 14 countries simultaneously. The hashtag #SilenceProtocol, referring to the film’s thirty seconds of black screen and absolute silence after Helena’s death, was trending in 22 countries. TikTok videos of audience reactions, filmed surreptitiously during the final act, accumulated over 200 million views by Sunday evening. The videos show the same thing across theaters in different countries: audiences crying, holding hands with strangers, sitting motionless in the dark, and then erupting into applause. The consistency of the response across cultures, languages, and geographies is remarkable.
The song, “Atlantis, You and Me,” written and composed by Haja Mo and performed by Royce Lyla, entered the Spotify Global Top 50 within eighteen hours of the film’s release. By Sunday night, it was the number one song on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music simultaneously, the first time a film soundtrack single has held the top position on all three platforms on its opening weekend. YouTube streams of the official audio exceeded 40 million by Monday morning. Fan-uploaded reaction videos of people listening to the song for the first time, many of them crying within the first thirty seconds, are generating millions of views per hour.
The Critics: 98% Fresh and the Superlatives Keep Coming
The critical response to Atlantis Protocol has been overwhelming in both its unanimity and its intensity.
Of 347 reviews counted by Rotten Tomatoes as of Sunday evening, 340 were classified as Fresh, producing a 98% Fresh rating. The average review score was 8.9 out of 10, the highest average for any wide release in 2032 and one of the highest for any film in the platform’s history.
The Certified Fresh consensus reads: “Atlantis Protocol is a breathtaking achievement in science fiction filmmaking, combining IMAX-scale spectacle with intimate emotional storytelling and anchored by Royce Lyla’s transcendent performance as Helena Atlas. Its final act, built on silence, consequence, and moral courage, sets a new standard for how blockbusters can end.”
The critical conversation has centered on several recurring themes.
First, the world-building. Critics have uniformly praised Mo’s vision of Atlantis as the most fully realized lost civilization in film history. The consistency of the technology, the ecological plausibility of the creatures, the integration of the Athari language into every surface of the city, and the way the Metromite energy system connects lighting, transportation, agriculture, medicine, computing, and defense into a single coherent network have been cited as setting a new benchmark for production design in science fiction.
Second, Royce Lyla’s performance. The critical consensus is forming rapidly that Lyla has delivered one of the defining performances of the decade. Her portrayal of Helena, a woman who has survived alone in the ruins of a dead civilization and must decide whether to leave or die with her world, has been compared to Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, Saoirse Ronan’s work in Atonement, and Cate Blanchett’s performance in Blue Jasmine, combining physical action, emotional vulnerability, and moral gravity in a single role. The floating gardens scene, in which Helena tells Miles about her mother’s hair smelling like jasmine, has been singled out by over forty individual reviews as one of the most affecting scenes in recent cinema.
Third, the ending. The Silence Protocol has become the most discussed filmmaking decision of the year. Critics are divided not on whether it works, virtually all agree that it does, but on how to categorize it. Some describe it as the bravest commercial filmmaking decision since Nolan refused to explain the final shot of Inception. Others compare it to the emotional architecture of Schindler’s List, where restraint produces a more devastating impact than spectacle. Several critics have argued that the thirty seconds of silence will be studied in film schools for decades as the definitive example of how absence can be more powerful than presence.
Fourth, the moral argument. Multiple critics have noted that Atlantis Protocol is one of the few blockbusters in recent memory that engages seriously with climate change, corporate influence over energy policy, and the question of whether humanity can be trusted with unlimited power, and does so without preaching or sacrificing entertainment value. The film presents the argument through characters rather than exposition, and it has the courage to conclude that the answer may be no, the hero gives back the crystal because he has concluded that humanity is not ready, without offering a reassuring counterargument.
The 2% of negative reviews, seven in total, raised concerns about the film’s running time (two hours and forty-two minutes), the density of the scientific exposition in the middle act, and the romantic subplot’s pacing. None of the negative reviews disputed the power of the ending or the quality of the visual effects.
The Projected Run: Why $1.5 Billion Is Not a Fantasy
Industry analysts are converging on a total worldwide gross between $1.4 billion and $1.6 billion for Atlantis Protocol’s complete theatrical run. Here is the reasoning behind that projection.
Domestic holds. The CinemaScore A+ grade is the single most reliable predictor of strong domestic legs, the ratio between opening weekend and total domestic gross. Films with A+ CinemaScores historically achieve domestic multipliers between 3.0x and 4.0x their opening weekend. Applied to Atlantis Protocol’s $127.3 million opening, this produces a projected domestic total between $381 million and $509 million, with a median estimate of $440 million. The Saturday-over-Friday bump and the 23% repeat viewing rate on Sunday both suggest that the multiplier will land at the higher end of this range.
China trajectory. The $52.3 million opening in China, combined with the 9.1 Douban score and strong Maoyan projections, suggests a total China gross between $180 million and $220 million. Chinese audiences historically show strong legs for visually spectacular films with positive word-of-mouth, and the IMAX format, which commands a significant ticket price premium in China, will continue to drive revenue through the second and third weekends.
International holds. The pattern of Saturday exceeding Friday in virtually every major international market suggests that word-of-mouth is driving attendance growth, not just marketing awareness. Markets like the UK, South Korea, Japan, and India, where the film’s themes and characters have strong local resonance, are expected to deliver multipliers of 3.0x to 3.5x their opening weekends. The total international gross, excluding China, is projected between $550 million and $650 million.
IMAX and premium format contribution. The disproportionate share of revenue from IMAX and premium formats, 45.3% of the domestic opening, significantly increases the film’s total revenue per ticket. IMAX tickets average $22 to $25 in major markets, versus $11 to $14 for standard screenings. If premium format audiences continue to represent 35-40% of total attendance through the run, the effective average ticket price for Atlantis Protocol will be substantially higher than for a typical wide release, boosting total revenue even if raw attendance numbers are comparable.
Repeat viewings. This is the variable that could push the film from $1.4 billion toward $1.6 billion or beyond. The early repeat viewing data, 23% of Sunday domestic tickets from returning audiences, is exceptional. If even 15% of total domestic attendance represents repeat viewers, that adds approximately $60 million to $75 million to the domestic total. Internationally, reports of repeat viewing behavior in South Korea, Japan, and the UK suggest a similar dynamic. The Silence Protocol and the song appear to be driving a phenomenon where audiences want to re-experience the emotional climax in a communal setting, and this desire does not diminish after the first viewing. Multiple exhibitors have compared the pattern to Avatar, where audiences returned specifically for the IMAX 3D experience, except that in this case, audiences are returning for the emotional experience rather than the visual one.
Combined, these projections produce a worldwide total of $1.4 billion at the conservative end and $1.6 billion at the optimistic end, with a median estimate of $1.5 billion that would make Atlantis Protocol the highest-grossing original IP release since Avatar and the biggest film of 2032 by a wide margin.
Why This Film Broke Through: The Industry Analysis
The question that will occupy Hollywood boardrooms for the next year is simple: why did this film succeed where so many others have failed?
The answers are multiple, but they converge on a single insight: Atlantis Protocol gave audiences something they could not get anywhere else.
It could not be streamed. The film’s emotional impact, particularly the Silence Protocol, depends on the communal theatrical environment: the darkness, the shared silence, the knowledge that five hundred people are feeling the same thing at the same time. Audiences understood this intuitively. The disproportionate IMAX and premium format sales are evidence that ticket buyers were not just choosing to see the film. They were choosing the environment in which to experience it. They were paying a premium for the privilege of crying next to strangers. That is something Netflix cannot offer.
It was original. In a landscape choked with sequels, reboots, and franchise extensions, Atlantis Protocol arrived with no pre-existing audience, no brand loyalty, and no nostalgia to trade on. It earned its audience from scratch, through marketing that emphasized the visual spectacle and the emotional stakes, through a critical response that built steadily from festival screenings to wide release, and through word-of-mouth that exploded after Thursday preview audiences began posting about the ending. The originality was not a liability. It was the selling point. Audiences were hungry for something new, and Atlantis Protocol was the first film in years to satisfy that hunger.
It had something to say. The film’s engagement with climate change, corporate greed, and the moral responsibility of technological power gave audiences a framework for discussion that extended beyond the theater. People did not just talk about whether the film was good. They talked about whether Miles was right to give back the crystal. They talked about whether Helena should have left. They talked about whether humanity can be trusted with unlimited energy. These are conversations that matter, and the film gave audiences permission to have them through the medium of characters they loved. That is the difference between a film that entertains for two hours and a film that changes the way you think about the world.
It trusted the audience. This is the most important factor and the one that will be hardest for the industry to replicate. Atlantis Protocol does not soften its ending. It does not rescue its heroine. It does not provide catharsis, resolution, or the reassuring sense that everything will be okay. It lets Helena die. It lets the crystal stay lost. It lets the world remain broken. And it trusts the audience to sit with that outcome, in silence, in darkness, for thirty seconds, without any guidance about how to feel.
The industry has spent a decade assuming that audiences want comfort, resolution, and happy endings. Atlantis Protocol proves that what audiences actually want is honesty. They want to be treated as adults. They want to feel something real, even if that something is grief. And when a film gives them that, they do not just watch it. They return to it. They bring their friends. They post about it. They buy the song. They get the tattoos. They sit in the dark and cry and clap and stand up and tell everyone they know.
That is not a box office result. That is a cultural event. And it is happening right now, in 4,012 domestic theaters and 88 international markets, in IMAX auditoriums and Dolby Cinemas and standard multiplexes, in every language and every time zone.
Atlantis Protocol is the biggest film of 2032. It may end up being one of the biggest films of the decade. And it started with one author, in one room, building one world, and trusting that the world would care.
The world cares.
— APPENDIX —
Atlantis Protocol — Selected Rotten Tomatoes Critical Excerpts
Certified Fresh: 98% (340 Fresh / 7 Rotten out of 347 Reviews)
Average Rating: 8.9/10
Audience Score: 97%
- “The most emotionally devastating blockbuster since Titanic. Helena’s sacrifice is not a plot twist. It is a moral reckoning that will haunt you for weeks.” — David Ehrlich, IndieWire (Fresh, 5/5)
- “Royce Lyla gives the performance of a lifetime. The floating gardens scene alone deserves every award available to the industry.” — Manohla Dargis, The New York Times (Fresh, Critics Pick)
- “Haja Mo’s source material was extraordinary. The adaptation honors it completely. This is the rare film where the author’s vision survives the studio system intact.” — Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian (Fresh, 5/5)
- “I have not cried in a theater in twelve years. The Silence Protocol broke that streak in thirty seconds.” — Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times (Fresh, 4/4)
- “Forget everything you think you know about lost civilization movies. Atlantis Protocol rewrites the genre from the foundation up.” — Stephanie Zacharek, TIME Magazine (Fresh, Grade: A)
- “The IMAX experience is non-negotiable. This film was designed to be felt in your chest, not watched on a couch. The subsonic frequencies during the tsunami are unlike anything I have experienced in a theater.” — Drew McWeeny, Formerly of HitFix (Fresh, 9/10)
- “Helena Atlas is the most fully realized heroine in science fiction cinema since Ellen Ripley. She is warrior, scientist, survivor, and tragic figure in equal measure, and Lyla plays every dimension with devastating precision.” — Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post (Fresh, 4/4)
- “The production design alone justifies the ticket price. Atlantis feels less like a digital creation and more like a place that was discovered and photographed. Every surface, every glyph, every flickering Metromite vein serves a narrative purpose.” — Justin Chang, The Los Angeles Times (Fresh, 4/4)
- “Cortez directs with the confidence of someone who knows exactly what she has. The restraint in the final act, particularly the decision to hold thirty seconds of black screen with no audio, is the bravest directorial choice of the decade.” — Robbie Collin, The Daily Telegraph (Fresh, 5/5)
- “A thundering, heartbreaking, intellectually rigorous masterpiece. Mo’s novel provided the blueprint. Cortez built the cathedral.” — Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine / Vulture (Fresh, 5/5)
- “The time loop sequence in the Chamber of the Heart is the best-edited action set piece of the year. The way the repetitions accelerate until the audience realizes what is happening before the characters do is pure, agonizing genius.” — David Sims, The Atlantic (Fresh, Grade: A)
- “I walked into the screening skeptical of the hype. I walked out a convert. This is a film that earns its emotion through two and a half hours of meticulous construction, and then detonates it in twelve minutes of silence and song.” — Clarisse Loughrey, The Independent (Fresh, 5/5)
- “Edmund Hale is a revelation as Miles Shaw. He has the charm of early Clooney, the physicality of Craig-era Bond, and an emotional vulnerability that neither of those comparisons would suggest. He is a star.” — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service (Fresh, 4/4)
- “The creature design is extraordinary. The Scions are not just monsters. They are mutated Atlanteans, and every time Helena fights one, you can see the grief in her eyes. That subtext transforms every action sequence into something far more devastating than spectacle.” — Alison Willmore, Vulture (Fresh, 4.5/5)
- “The song will win the Oscar. Not because it is the catchiest nominee or the most technically accomplished. Because it arrives after thirty seconds of silence and gives five hundred strangers permission to grieve together. No other song this year does that.” — Owen Gleiberman, Variety (Fresh, Grade: A)
- “Atlantis Protocol is proof that Hollywood can still produce original myths. The question is whether Hollywood will learn from it or spend the next five years trying to franchise it into irrelevance.” — A.O. Scott, The New York Times (Fresh, Critics Pick)
- “I have covered IMAX releases for nine years. I have never seen an audience sit in complete silence for thirty seconds by choice. Not one person reached for a phone. Not one person whispered. The Silence Protocol is a collective act of mourning, and it works because the film earns it.” — Eric Kohn, IndieWire (Fresh, Grade: A)
- “The underwater sequences are the most beautiful environments committed to screen since Avatar’s Pandora. But where Pandora was a spectacle of color, Atlantis is a spectacle of loss. Every glowing coral, every bioluminescent creature, is a reminder of what is about to be destroyed.” — Tomris Laffly, Harper’s Bazaar (Fresh, 4/4)
- “Mo built a world where one material powers everything, from lighting to medicine to weapons to clothing, and because that consistency runs through every frame, the world feels real in a way that most CG environments never achieve.” — Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly (Fresh, Grade: A-)
- “Damon Lysander is the best villain of the year because he is not wrong. His assessment of human nature is chillingly accurate. The film’s courage is in letting him be right and still condemning him for it.” — Chris Nashawaty, Esquire (Fresh, 4.5/5)
- “The Athari language is not a novelty. It is integrated into every control panel, every inscription, every piece of art in the city. When Theo decodes it and the archive library activates, the room-scale holographic projection is the single most breathtaking use of CG in the film, and this is a film with a floating city and a colossal octopus.” — Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist (Fresh, Grade: A)
- “Helena cooking dinner for Miles in her small, Metromite-heated home, surrounded by her garden and her tools and her memories, is the scene that broke me. Not the tsunami. Not the song. The dinner. Because it showed me everything she was about to lose.” — Monica Castillo, RogerEbert.com (Fresh, 4/4)
- “Do not watch this film on a plane. Do not wait for streaming. The theatrical experience is the experience. The sound design alone, the subsonic frequencies, the Metromite hum, the sudden absence of all audio at the climax, requires a room designed for it.” — James Berardinelli, ReelViews (Fresh, 3.5/4)
- “The epilogue is the most elegant final five minutes of any film this year. After all that loss, after all that grief, Mo and Cortez offer one small, inexplicable grace: the suggestion that some bonds survive death. It does not explain itself. It does not need to.” — Tasha Robinson, Polygon (Fresh, 9/10)
- “Jace Theron, played with irresistible warmth by the Australian newcomer Blake Harmon, provides exactly the right amount of comic relief. His one-liners defuse tension without undermining it, and his genuine affection for Helena is one of the film’s quietest pleasures.” — Kristy Puchko, Mashable (Fresh, 4.5/5)
- “The Amazon temple sequence is the best adventure filmmaking since Raiders of the Lost Ark. I do not make that comparison lightly. The cane-as-piton swing over the underground river is an instant classic of the genre.” — Matt Singer, ScreenCrush (Fresh, 9/10)
- “This is the film that climate change deserves. Not a documentary that lectures. Not a disaster movie that exploits. A story that shows you what it feels like to watch a civilization destroy itself through overconfidence and denial, and then asks if you recognize the pattern.” — Emily Yoshida, New York Magazine (Fresh, Grade: A)
- “The tribute card hit me harder than the tsunami. In tribute of Helena Atlas. 12004 BC to 11854 BC. The Last Daughter of Atlantis. Five seconds of text on a black screen. No music. Just her name and her dates. It is a memorial, and it made the loss permanent in a way that the wave did not.” — Siddhant Adlakha, IGN (Fresh, 10/10)
- “Cortez stages the sea serpent attack with a spatial clarity that most action directors have forgotten how to achieve. You always know where the characters are, where the creature is, and where the danger is coming from. The IMAX format makes the serpent feel like it is in the theater with you.” — Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com (Fresh, 4/4)
- “I have seen the film twice. The second time was more devastating than the first, because I spent the entire runtime knowing what was coming and watching Helena be happy anyway. That is the mark of a great tragedy. It is not diminished by knowledge. It is deepened by it.” — Joanna Robinson, Vanity Fair (Fresh, Grade: A+)
- “The score by Hans Aimer is one of the year’s best, but its greatest achievement is knowing when to stop. The silence after Helena’s death is not a gap in the score. It is the score’s final statement. Aimer wrote music that vanishes at the moment of greatest need, and that absence is more powerful than any swell.” — Jonathan Broxton, Movie Music UK (Fresh, 5/5)
- “Kira Artemis is the unsung hero of the ensemble. She pilots the Sphere, monitors the team, cracks jokes under pressure, and holds Miles together when he is falling apart. The performance is subtle, warm, and essential.” — Karen Han, Slate (Fresh, 4/5)
- “There is a scene where Helena places a floating, rose-colored flower behind Miles’s ear in the levitating garden, and he calls her a goddess, and she tells him to kneel. The entire theater laughed. It is a moment of joy so pure, so earned after everything this character has endured, that it felt like sunlight after a storm. And then you remember what is coming, and the joy becomes grief in retrospect.” — Sam Adams, Slate (Fresh, 4/5)
- “Mo and Cortez have redefined what Atlantis means. For twenty-five hundred years, it was Plato’s cautionary tale of corruption. Now it is something else: a portrait of the best humanity could be, destroyed not by vice but by fragility. That is a more devastating message, and a more honest one.” — Alissa Wilkinson, The New York Times (Fresh, Critics Pick)
- “The Aquilamaris, the half-fish half-bird predators, are the most creative creature design since the Xenomorph. Their dual-environment hunting strategy, rising from water and attacking from air simultaneously, produces a set piece in the amphitheater that is genuinely terrifying in IMAX.” — Germain Lussier, Gizmodo (Fresh, 4.5/5)
- “Every technology in the film, from the floating pods to the DNA-locked weapons to the crystal computing system, operates on the same physical principle. That consistency is what makes the world feel real. You accept Metromite once, and everything else follows.” — Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter (Fresh, 8.5/10)
- “Miles giving back the crystal is the single bravest moment in blockbuster cinema this year. The entire film builds toward retrieving it. Characters die for it. And the hero hands it back because he has concluded that humanity does not deserve it. That is not a twist. It is a thesis.” — Katey Rich, Vanity Fair (Fresh, Grade: A)
- “The BowTokai is the coolest weapon in cinema since the lightsaber. Energy arrows generated by the force of the draw, registered to the owner’s DNA, with intensity ranging from a gentle nudge to an explosion. Helena wields it like it is an extension of her body, which, after a decade of solitary survival, it is.” — Hoai-Tran Bui, /Film (Fresh, 9/10)
- “I cannot remember the last time a film made me reconsider how I think about energy, power, and responsibility. Atlantis Protocol did it without once feeling like a lecture. It did it through a love story.” — David Fear, Rolling Stone (Fresh, 4.5/5)
- “The film’s opening weekend is not a surprise to anyone who saw it in previews. The surprise is that a studio allowed this ending to exist. Helena dies. The crystal stays lost. The world does not change. And the audience stands up and applauds. That is the real story here.” — Scott Mendelson, Forbes (Fresh, Grade: A-)
- “In a year of sequels, reboots, and franchise extensions, Atlantis Protocol is the only film that made me feel like I was watching something for the first time. It is original in the deepest sense of the word: it comes from somewhere no other film has been.” — Chris Evangelista, /Film (Fresh, 9/10)
- “The Chronos mega yacht sequence is the best corporate thriller filmmaking since Michael Clayton. The luxury, the secrecy, the NDA jokes, the slowly dawning realization of what Chronos is actually asking these people to do, all of it is staged with a precision that builds dread beneath the polish.” — Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair (Fresh, Grade: A-)
- “Royce Lyla should clear space on her shelf. The performance is extraordinary from beginning to end, but the final close-up, her face as the wave approaches, calm, resolved, at peace, is the image that will define this awards season.” — Kyle Buchanan, The New York Times (Fresh, Critics Pick)
- “I expected spectacle. I got spectacle and philosophy and heartbreak and one of the greatest love stories in modern cinema. The bar for science fiction blockbusters has been permanently raised.” — Amon Warmann, Empire Magazine (Fresh, 5/5)
- “The sound design deserves its own review. The Metromite hum that changes pitch as the city dies. The bass frequency of the tsunami that vibrates your seat. And the silence, the thirty seconds of absolute nothing, that is louder than any explosion in the film.” — Mike Ryan, Uproxx (Fresh, Grade: A)
- “Mo’s novel was already a masterpiece. Cortez has turned it into a cinematic event that honors every word on the page while exploiting the IMAX format in ways the page cannot. This is what adaptation should look like.” — Sharmila Hassan, Distinguished Magazine (Fresh, 5/5)
- “The floating gardens sequence is the most beautiful five minutes of film I have seen this year. Plants hovering in the air, pulsing with color, cascading translucent vines shifting between emerald, sapphire, violet, and crimson. In IMAX, you feel like you are standing inside a living aurora. And then Helena starts talking about her mother, and the beauty becomes unbearable.” — Courtney Howard, Fresh Fiction (Fresh, 5/5)
- “There are two kinds of blockbusters: those that entertain you while you are watching and those that change the way you think after you leave. Atlantis Protocol is both, and the second kind is the reason it will be remembered.” — Todd McCarthy, Deadline Hollywood (Fresh, Grade: A)
- “I brought my sixteen-year-old son. He has not voluntarily discussed a film with me since he was eleven. We talked about Atlantis Protocol for two hours in the car. About Helena. About the crystal. About whether he would have given it back. That conversation alone was worth the ticket.” — Nell Minow, RogerEbert.com (Fresh, 4/4)
- “This is the one. The film the industry has been waiting for without knowing it. The original myth that proves audiences will show up for something new if it treats them with intelligence, ambition, and emotional honesty. Every studio executive in Hollywood should see Atlantis Protocol and then ask themselves a simple question: why did it take this long?” — Peter Debruge, Variety (Fresh, Grade: A+)
Rotten Tomatoes Certified Fresh Consensus: “Atlantis Protocol is a breathtaking achievement in science fiction filmmaking, combining IMAX-scale spectacle with intimate emotional storytelling and anchored by Royce Lyla’s transcendent performance as Helena Atlas. Its final act, built on silence, consequence, and moral courage, sets a new standard for how blockbusters can end.”
Certified Fresh: 98% | Average Rating: 8.9/10 | Audience Score: 97% | Reviews Counted: 347
Kayla Paval is a film critic and cultural correspondent. Her work appears in Distinguished Magazine, Sight and Sound, and The Atlantic.
