Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” has become the director’s highest-grossing film of all time, crossing $1.1 billion worldwide and overtaking his 2012 Batman finale “The Dark Knight Rises.” Universal confirmed the milestone Sunday, less than a month after the Homeric epic opened in theaters on July 17.
The studio reported $1.104 billion in global ticket sales, surpassing “The Dark Knight Rises” at $1.085 billion and 2008’s “The Dark Knight” at $1.005 billion, the two films that had long stood as Nolan’s biggest earners. Domestic receipts reached $461.1 million, with the film landing in second place for the weekend behind “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.” Nolan’s filmography has now generated a combined $7 billion at the global box office, a run that includes the “Dark Knight” trilogy, “Inception,” “Dunkirk,” “Interstellar” and his Oscar-winning “Oppenheimer,” which fell just short of the billion-dollar mark at $975 million.
Starring Matt Damon as Odysseus alongside Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway and Robert Pattinson, the nearly three-hour drama adapts a poem composed almost 3,000 years ago, a fact that has made its commercial performance especially striking to industry analysts. The film now ranks as the highest-grossing release of Damon, Hathaway and Pattinson’s careers.
Premium formats have driven much of the momentum. Imax says the film has become its highest-grossing release ever, pulling in $147.3 million domestically and $141.8 million internationally, figures that don’t yet include its China rollout, where the format has roughly 800 screens. The rarer 70mm engagements that Nolan favors have added $37.5 million from just 41 locations worldwide, and many of those venues remain sold out into the fall.
The film still has room to grow. It opened in South Korea this past weekend and is set for a Chinese release on August 14, followed by Japan in September, markets that could push its total considerably higher. “The Odyssey” is the fifth movie this year to cross the billion-dollar threshold, joining “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” “Toy Story 5,” “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and the Michael Jackson biopic “Michael.” Universal executives have credited the result to Nolan’s ability to draw audiences back into theaters for large-format, event-style releases even as the broader industry continues to lean on franchise sequels and existing intellectual property.
