{"id":2508446,"date":"2026-07-19T17:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T17:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2508446"},"modified":"2026-07-19T17:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T17:52:09","slug":"the-odyssey-is-christopher-nolans-biggest-global-box-office-opening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/the-odyssey-is-christopher-nolans-biggest-global-box-office-opening\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Odyssey’ is Christopher Nolan’s biggest global box office opening"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It was a very warm homecoming at the box office this weekend for Christopher Nolan\u2019s \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d<\/a> as the star-studded epic grossed $124.5 million in the U.S. and Canada, a welcome and massive jolt for theaters after a series of slower weeks.<\/p>\n

The Universal Pictures film\u2019s haul outperformed studio expectations of a $117 million domestic opening and set a record for the highest-grossing opening weekend for a live-action or R-rated film so far this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Odyssey\u201d now ranks as the third-highest domestic debut of 2026, trailing only Disney and Pixar\u2019s \u201cToy Story 5\u201d <\/a>($159.7 million) and Universal, Illumination and Nintendo\u2019s \u201cThe Super Mario Galaxy Movie\u201d<\/a> ($131.7 million).<\/p>\n

The film, which stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, brought in a total of $264.1 million worldwide, according to studio estimates. That marks the biggest global opening ever for a Nolan film.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Odyssey\u201d was produced by Nolan and his wife and producing partner Emma Thomas<\/a> for their company, Syncopy, and had a production budget of about $200 million to $250 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt delivers on every sort of promise,\u201d said Jim Orr, Universal\u2019s president of domestic distribution. \u201cIt is totally immersive. It is great emotional storytelling. It is something that truly has to be experienced on the big screen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nearly three-hour epic is the first feature to be shot entirely on Imax cameras, a feat that required extensive cooperation between Nolan and the Canadian entertainment tech company, which operates out of Playa Vista.<\/p>\n

Nolan first told Imax Chief Executive Rich Gelfond in early 2024 that he was considering making an entire film with Imax cameras and laid out what he\u2019d need for that to happen, including a quieter and lighter camera, a way to make film reloads easier and getting enough trained projectionists.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a fair amount of time and investment\u201d to figure out those challenges, Gelfond said. But by August 2024, the Imax team put together a series of tests to show cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema. Two months later, Nolan saw the tests and was impressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs filmmakers and studios integrate Imax, we become an increasingly important part of the ecosystem,\u201d Gelfond said. \u201cWhen a film is released in Imax or shot in Imax, I think it\u2019s a signal to audiences that it\u2019s somewhat special, and the filmmaker is really leaning in in a unique way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anticipation for the film has been building for at least a year, when the first Imax 70mm tickets went on sale<\/a>. Pre-sales for \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d shattered the previous Imax record by nearly double, the company said.<\/p>\n

Enhanced formats made up 53% of the domestic weekend\u2019s total, with both film and digital Imax revenue comprising 23.8%. Imax 70mm comprised about 4% of that total, with Imax digital making up the rest. Non-Imax 70mm film screening revenue totaled 3%, while 35mm showings made up 0.3%.<\/p>\n

Adding to the film\u2019s mystique is Nolan\u2019s reliance on old-school Hollywood practical effects, such as his use of puppetry, animatronics and robotics in scenes with the Cyclops, as well as a real Viking boat that the actors learned to sail.<\/p>\n

The massive reception for the film is a relief for theater owners, who weathered their own rough waters in the last few weeks, as Walt Disney Co.\u2019s live-action \u201cMoana\u201d underperformed in its opening at the box office and Universal and Illumination\u2019s \u201cMinions & Monsters\u201d had a softer debut.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoana\u201d came in second at the box office this weekend with a domestic haul of $19 million. \u201cMinions & Monsters\u201d ($14.8 million), \u201cToy Story 5\u201d ($14.8 million) and Warner Bros. Pictures\u2019 \u201cEvil Dead Burn\u201d ($5 million) rounded out the top five, according to data from Rentrak.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a very warm homecoming at the box office this weekend for Christopher Nolan\u2019s \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d as the star-studded epic grossed $124.5 million in the U.S. and Canada, a welcome and massive jolt for theaters after a series of slower weeks. The Universal Pictures film\u2019s haul outperformed studio expectations of a $117 million domestic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2508447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2508446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/The-Odyssey-is-Christopher-Nolans-biggest-global-box-office-opening.com2Fed2Faf2F9f39c65b4d8ea88fd6f41e8a.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2508446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2508448,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508446\/revisions\/2508448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2508447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2508446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2508446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2508446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}