{"id":943940,"date":"2026-07-18T19:29:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T19:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/943940\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T19:29:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T19:29:17","slug":"the-odyssey-box-office-opening-at-120-million-for-christopher-nolan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/943940\/","title":{"rendered":"The Odyssey: Box Office Opening at $120 Million for Christopher Nolan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tChristopher Nolan<\/a>\u2018s box office<\/a> journey with The Odyssey<\/a> looks to be one for the books, as Universal Pictures<\/a>\u2018 star-studded adaptation<\/a> of the classical Greek mythological tale gets off to a rousing start in its opening weekend.<\/p>\n

\n\tStarring Matt Damon<\/a> as the heroic Odysseus, the epic feature is fending off competition with $51.2 million on Friday from 3,900 North American screens, including Thursday previews<\/a>. Earning an A CinemaScore from audiences, the film is eyeing a $120 million-plus frame, which would make it 2026\u2019s biggest live-action opening, with only Toy Story 5 ($159 million) and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ($131 million) debuting above it. The Odyssey is also set to claim the top R-rated opening of the year and Universal\u2019s highest weekend launch ever for an R-rated movie.<\/p>\n

\n\tGlobally, The Odyssey appears headed for $257.8 million for the summer weekend, with $137.3 million from 73 international markets.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis marks an even stronger start than initially projected for the film, which has a production budget of $250 million, as the studio was targeting a domestic opening in the mid-$80 million to $100 million range. Tom Holland<\/a>, Anne Hathaway<\/a>, Robert Pattinson<\/a>, Lupita Nyong\u2019o, Zendaya<\/a> and Charlize Theron star in the story of Odysseus (Damon) on his tumultuous trip home after the Trojan War to reclaim his throne as the king of Ithaca and reunite with his wife Penelope (Hathaway). Nolan and Emma Thomas produce for Syncopy.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith The Odyssey marking the first feature to be shot entirely on IMAX cameras<\/a>, premium large formats have been a priority for many moviegoers, and cinephiles have flocked to the 25 U.S. theaters that screen IMAX 70mm film. The title is eyeing an estimated $30 million from IMAX screens domestically for 25 percent of its North American haul, with an additional $22 million expected from IMAX showings internationally.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis movie looks to notch the third-biggest opening weekend domestically of Nolan\u2019s impressive career and the best outside of the Batman franchise, behind 2012\u2019s The Dark Knight Rises with $160 million and 2008\u2019s The Dark Knight at $158 million. The Odyssey is also set to become Nolan\u2019s biggest global opening, topping The Dark Knight Rises\u2019 $249 million worldwide launch.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Odyssey is the weekend\u2019s sole new offering in wide release, unlike the filmmaker\u2019s most recent title, Oppenheimer, which opened in July 2023 alongside Barbie as part of the sensation known as Barbenheimer. The film about the physicist who led development of the atomic bomb opened to $82.4 million domestically and ultimately collected $975 million worldwide, and it won seven Academy Awards, including best picture and Nolan\u2019s first best director Oscar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tNolan\u2019s successful ride with The Odyssey includes sterling reviews<\/a>, as its 95 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes is currently the best tally of his career, just ahead of The Dark Knight and Memento at 94 percent. The Odyssey is also \u201cverified hot,\u201d with a 97 percent Rotten Tomatoes score from audiences. In his review for The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>, chief film critic David Rooney deemed it \u201ca meditative action movie both immense and intimate, albeit one whose flow is impeded by the inherently episodic nature of the nonlinear source material and some questionable casting choices.\u201d Additionally, THR\u2019s list ranking Nolan\u2019s movies<\/a> places The Odyssey in second place, behind only The Dark Knight.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe sophomore frame for Disney\u2019s live-action Moana<\/a> is set to dock in second place. After a disappointing opening<\/a>, the Dwayne Johnson-led feature is heading to roughly $19 million domestically for the weekend, declining around 56 percent for a two-week run of $82 million in North America.<\/p>\n

\n\tIllumination\u2019s Minions & Monsters<\/a> and Disney\u2019s Toy Story 5<\/a> are in close competition for No. 3 on the chart. As the latest title in Universal\u2019s Despicable Me franchise, Minions & Monsters looks to pick up $4.2 million Friday for a third weekend of $14 million, bringing its domestic haul to $136 million. Meanwhile, the latest installment in the popular Toy Story<\/a> series is also lassoing roughly $4.2 million Friday for around $13.8 million in its fifth frame for a domestic sum of $429 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tClosing out the top five is Warner Bros.\u2019 Evil Dead Burn, the latest entry in the Evil Dead horror franchise<\/a>. After its opening sum last weekend was well behind the debut of 2023\u2019s Evil Dead Rise, Evil Dead Burn<\/a> is expected to gross around $4.7 million this weekend, declining 66 percent for a two-week domestic total at $23.8 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tSunday\u2019s World Cup<\/a> final between Spain and Argentina<\/a> presents potential competition for moviegoing, particularly among international audiences. In a rare summer occurrence, next weekend is devoid of new wide releases, as studios appear reticent to date any titles between The Odyssey and Sony\u2019s July 31 release of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, starring Holland and Zendaya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christopher Nolan\u2018s box office journey with The Odyssey looks to be one for the books, as Universal Pictures\u2018…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":943941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[25375,207,26299,171,203645,49069,17824,53,102222,3279,1748,67,132,184,68,21490,32773],"class_list":["post-943940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-anne-hathaway","tag-box-office","tag-christopher-nolan","tag-entertainment","tag-lupita-nyongo","tag-matt-damon","tag-moana","tag-movies","tag-robert-pattinson","tag-the-odyssey","tag-tom-holland","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-universal-pictures","tag-us","tag-world-cup","tag-zendaya"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=943940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/943941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}