“The Odyssey,” Nolan’s epic adaptation of Homer’s poem starring Matt Damon as the Greek king Odysseus, has crossed $1 billion in global ticket sales after just three weeks in theaters, generating $429.65 million domestically and $578.8 million internationally.
The film reached the milestone on its fourth Friday in release. It becomes only the third R-rated film ever to gross more than $1 billion, following 2019’s “Joker” and 2023’s “Deadpool & Wolverine,” and the first R-rated film not based on comic book characters to reach that figure.
The achievement marks Nolan’s first movie since 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises” to clear the billion-dollar threshold, and within days the film is expected to surpass that movie’s $1.085 billion lifetime total to become Nolan’s highest-grossing release ever. His 2023 film “Oppenheimer” came close during the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon but topped out at $975.8 million, just short of the mark.
The star-studded cast includes Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, John Leguizamo, Elliot Page and Jon Bernthal. The film opened the same month as “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” which posted a record-breaking $932 million debut weekend, and rather than competing for audiences, the two films appeared to boost each other, contributing to the best single box office weekend in U.S. history.
Strong demand for IMAX and other premium large-format screenings has powered the film’s steady box office holds, with IMAX auditoriums booked into October in markets including Los Angeles and New York. “The Odyssey” opened in South Korea this week and is scheduled to open in China on Aug.
14 and Japan in September. It becomes the fifth film of 2026 to cross $1 billion worldwide, joining “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” “Toy Story 5,” “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and “Michael.” Industry watchers are counting on the film, alongside “Spider-Man,” to push the domestic box office above $4 billion for only the second time since the pandemic, a mark last reached in 2023.
