It may be the finals of the World Cup this weekend, but that's doing little to slow the momentum of The Odyssey. Thanks to an estimated $257.8 million debut at the worldwide box office, the fantasy epic had come ashore with the biggest ever opening for a Christopher Nolan movie.
It tops The Dark Knight Rises ($249 million), The Dark Knight ($198 million), and Oppenheimer ($180 million), and in 2026, it sits behind only The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ($372.5 million ) and Toy Story 5 ($312 million).
Looking at those figures, it might be time for Hollywood to start paying a little more attention to animated movies, though Spider-Man: Brand New Day should top them both later this month. However, The Odyssey will continue to play exclusively on IMAX screens, meaning this should be a blockbuster with serious legs over the summer.
Back to The Odyssey, and with $120.5 million in North America, Nolan's latest is off to a terrific start. He's also broken several of his own records overseas and helped Universal Pictures land its biggest opening in at least 11 markets.
Internationally, The Odyssey is now the second-biggest R-rated opening of all time, behind only 2024's Deadpool & Wolverine ($233.3 million).
What's next for Nolan? Well, in an interview with Today, he confirmed that it will be "at least" three years before we see another of his movies in theaters. This tracks, as there were three years between Interstellar (2014), Dunkirk (2017), Tenet (2020), Oppenheimer (2023), and now The Odyssey. So, 2029 it is.
"I definitely hit the limits of my own stamina and everybody’s stamina, I think," he told the morning show. "I mean, it’s The Odyssey; of course it should be difficult. We’re not doing the job right making a film of The Odyssey if it doesn’t seem difficult."
"I went to IMAX, and I said, ‘Look, if ever we are going to fulfil this dream of shooting the entire movie that way, this is the one," Nolan said of filming it entirely on IMAX 70mm film. "This is The Odyssey."
The cast of The Odyssey includes Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Benny Safdie, Elliot Page, Jon Bernthal, Mia Goth, John Leguizamo, Himesh Patel, Lupita Nyong'o, Will Yun Lee, Benny Safdie, Bill Irwin, Samantha Morton, Jesse Garcia, Corey Hawkins, Josh Stewart, Jimmy Gonzales, Maurice Compte, and Logan Marshall-Green.
Shot across the world using brand-new IMAX film technology, the film brings Homer’s foundational saga to IMAX film screens for the first time, and it's now playing in theaters.