The Odyssey explodes the American box office with a monumental start
Christopher Nolan has the third best start of the year in the United States with more than $124 million in revenue this weekend.
After a very mixed start to the summer across the Atlantic, Christopher Nolan is putting the US box office back in the right direction!
The Odyssey had a spectacular launch in the United States with $124.5 million in revenue for its first weekend.
It’s also Christopher Nolan’s biggest debut since The Dark Knight Riseswhich opened to $160 million in 2012.
His peplum also marks the third best start of the year across the Atlantic, behind Toy Story 5 ($159 million) and Super Mario Galaxy ($131 million).
A result all the more impressive given that the film lasts almost three hours, resurrects a genre that has almost disappeared from screens and was released with an R rating in the United States, which limits access to a whole category of young spectators. Internationally, The Odyssey adds $139.6 million collected in 73 territories. Its worldwide launch thus reached 264.1 million dollars, a record in the career of the British director, ahead of The Dark Knight Rises ($249 million), The Dark Knight ($198 million) and Oppenheimer ($180 million).
Adapted from Homer’s poem, The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus’ return full of pitfalls to Ithaca after the Trojan War. Matt Damon plays the main role, surrounded by Tom Holland and many others. Excellent critical reception, very favorable word of mouth, XXL casting: the blockbuster seems set for a long career, especially since it will not face any major competition before the release of Spider-Man: Brand New DayJuly 31.
First feature film shot entirely with IMAX cameras, The Odyssey take full advantage of the craze for premium rooms. These formats accounted for 53% of the weekend’s U.S. revenue, while IMAX screenings alone generated $60 million, or nearly a quarter of global revenue. A welcome performance for a film whose production budget reached $250 million, to which are added approximately 125 million in marketing expenses. It will therefore be necessary to approach the billion mark to bring in money for Universal.
But this epic launch marks a new show of strength from Nolan, confirming the director’s unique status in the world of cinemas.
After the successes of the trilogy The Dark Knight, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk and above all Oppenheimerthe British filmmaker seems to attract crowds every time, regardless of the genre.
Behind this tidal wave, the live action remake of Moana confirms its difficult start. The film only collected $19 million for its second weekend (down 56%) and has now grossed 82 million in North America for 178 million worldwide. With an estimated budget of $250 million, Disney is expected to suffer a heavy loss on its theatrical run.
In third place, the season’s flagship cartoons continue to occupy vacationers.
Minions and Monsters And Toy Story 5 are tied with around $15 million each. Illumination’s film has now earned $323 million worldwide and should be profitable thanks to its contained budget of $85 million, despite lower results than previous installments of the franchise. That of Pixar continues its irresistible rise with $958 million in worldwide revenue after five weeks. The billion mark will be crossed in a few hours.
Finally, all this competition hurts Supergirl which continues to collapse.
With only $1.5 million collected for its fourth weekend, the Warner blockbuster totaled $120 million worldwide. Very far from making its budget of 170 million profitable, it should cause Warner Bros to lose more than 120 million dollars, becoming the studio’s second big failure in 2026 after The Bride!.
