Director Christopher Nolan’s latest film, “The Odyssey,” opened over the weekend at No. 1, earning millions more than expected.
“The Odyssey,” based on the classic Greek myth by Homer, earned $124.5 million in North America and more than $264 million worldwide. Select IMAX showings of the film have been sold out for more than a year.
Christopher Nolan, director of “The Odyssey”AP
The film’s success at the box office comes after weeks of a bigoted right-wing campaign led by multibillionaire GOP donor Elon Musk, who railed against the film for casting people of color and LGBTQ+ actors, including Lupita Nyong’o and Zendaya—who are both Black—and Elliot Page—who is transgender.
This was a sticking point for Musk, who loudly complained on X about the actors being cast in roles portraying fictional characters like Helen of Troy and Achilles.
Musk hailed one X commenter for arguing that Nolan would “be called racist” if Helen of Troy, who was said to be the most beautiful woman in the world, was played by a white actor. In another post, Musk promoted a sexist joke about Page.
The bile promoted on X is part of a broader trend since Musk purchased the platform in October 2022. The algorithms powering the site have often surfaced hateful commentary and prioritized issues comporting to Musk’s bigoted, right-wing views.
The success of “The Odyssey” once again lays bare how X has become a self-reinforcing ecosystem for misinformation and hate and doesn’t reflect the real world. If Musk and his supporters were reflective of real-world opinion, it’s unlikely that the film would have performed as well as it did.
The stark contrast between Musk’s world and the real world was revealed in a February poll from The Argument, which showed that heavy users of X were strongly supportive of President Donald Trump, while those with a different media diet were not.
Actor Lupita Nyong’o attends the premiere of “The Odyssey.”AP
Musk’s failure to influence public opinion toward “The Odyssey” comes as he continues to wield an outsized influence within the Republican Party. Musk spent millions to help Trump win the 2024 election, and he’s among the top donors to the party’s 2026 campaign.
Musk led Trump’s failed Department of Government Efficiency and saw the value of his company, Tesla, take a beating as public opinion turned against Trump and DOGE’s cruel and disastrous behavior.
The crusade against “The Odyssey” is well within the tradition of conservatives railing against Hollywood and its purported liberal values. The right has often fumed at the influence that progressive artists have had, even as conservatives have amassed massive political power.
Despite its political influence, the right has been unable to produce entertainment content that attracts a wide audience or to dissuade the public from consuming so-called “woke” media.
In response to that ongoing failure, the right has been working behind the scenes to buy up media conglomerates like Paramount, giving them control over key news and entertainment outlets.
But at the end of the day, conservatives are failing to prevent people from seeing and enjoying “The Odyssey,” and that’s something that they’ll never get over.
We’ll get straight to the point: The financial hardships that Daily Kos is facing this year are tough.
We continue to be paywall-free. We continue to be supported by our readers, not billionaires or corporations. But we need to bring in more revenue. We are leaning on our community more than ever to help make ends meet.
Power matters.