Christopher Nolan just broke his own record — with a movie based on a poem older than most nations.
“Death, taxes and Christopher Nolan,” said Shawn Robbins, Fandango’s director of analytics, summing up just how predictable Nolan’s box office dominance has become. THE ODYSSEY, Nolan’s sprawling, R-rated retelling of Homer’s ancient epic, opened to an estimated $124.5 million domestically and $264.1 million worldwide over the weekend of July 17-19, according to Variety. The global haul makes THE ODYSSEY the biggest opening weekend of Nolan’s 25-year career, surpassing the previous benchmark set by THE DARK KNIGHT RISES in 2012.
The movie, distributed by Universal, arrived after a $17 million preview haul on Thursday night and a $51 million opening day, Variety reported. That domestic number marks Nolan’s best start since 2012’s THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, which opened to $160 million, and lands THE ODYSSEY as the third-largest domestic opening of the year so far, trailing only TOY STORY 5 and THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE.
Universal spent $250 million to make THE ODYSSEY and another $125 million to market it worldwide, a steep bet for an R-rated movie in an era when studios typically chase the broadest possible audience, per Variety. The investment paid off. THE ODYSSEY now stands as the biggest opening ever for a Universal R-rated release and the best-ever domestic debut for star Matt Damon, according to Deadline.
Damon plays Odysseus, the Greek king trying to sail home after the Trojan War, in a cast that also includes Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o and Samantha Morton. The MPA rating — violence and some language — marks the first R rating Nolan has carried since 2002’s INSOMNIA, a departure the director said came down to weaponry. “We wanted to make the most intense version… with the weapons of the time, they are more brutal,” Nolan told Empire.
Nolan also shot THE ODYSSEY entirely on IMAX cameras, the first feature ever to do so, continuing his long campaign to keep audiences in premium large-format theaters rather than at home on a couch. That strategy appears to be working.
“Premium screen showtimes, especially IMAX, sell out weeks in advance for Nolan’s releases, guaranteeing a long box office runway for ‘The Odyssey’ as positive word of mouth sets in,” Robbins said. Movieguide® previously reported that ticket demand for THE ODYSSEY strained AMC’s app in the days before release, an early sign this one wasn’t going to be a quiet arthouse curiosity.
Nolan arrives at THE ODYSSEY on the heels of OPPENHEIMER, which won Best Picture and earned him his first Best Director Oscar. Movieguide® noted in its -3 review of OPPENHEIMER that Nolan is “very well acted” but often “overwrought,” and that movie carried its own strong content warnings, including nudity and language — concerns that carry over, and arguably intensify, with THE ODYSSEY’s brutal battle sequences and R rating.
Homer’s original poem is, after all, one of the oldest surviving stories about a man trying to get home to his wife against every temptation the world throws at him — a theme not so different from the pilgrimages described throughout Scripture. Families weighing whether to see THE ODYSSEY together should know the R rating is earned: expect graphic violence, some sexual references and strong language, alongside a story that, at its core, still wrestles with loyalty, endurance and the cost of coming home.
Read Next: AI-Generated ODYSSEUS: THE FALL Debuts Days Before Nolan’s THE ODYSSEY
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
