SUNDAY AM: Odysseus’ boatload of cash from his global voyage just got bigger with Universal‘s Christopher Nolan epic The Odyssey raking in $264.1M worldwide, again a record start for the director ahead of Dark Knight Rises ($249M WW).
The foreign start of $139.6M is also the director’s biggest international opening ever ahead of Oppenheimer and The Dark Knight Rises in like-for-like markets. The Odyssey bowed in 73 territories, 12,700 locations and 25,600 screens. Still the second best star for a R-rated movie abroad after Deadpool & Wolverine. In addition it’s Universal’s biggest opening ever in 11 markets and Nolan’s biggest in 48 countries including France, Italy, India, Spain, Brazil, Netherlands and Poland.
The first-ever theatrical release shot in Imax entirely counted $51.8M from the large format exhibitor’s screens with $6.3M coming from 41 screens with 70MM, a $153K screen average. North America alone counted $29.6M, repping close to 24% market share of the weekend from 444 auditoriums. Overseas, Imax saw $22.2M from 441 sites, a 16% share of the B.O. Twenty-six markets delivered the biggest Imax opening of all-time including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Mexico and Argentina. The film has yet to open in South Korea (Aug. 5), China, (Aug. 14), and Japan (Sept. 11).
Breakdown:
Nolan’s homeland of the UK, natch, led with $17.4M, his 2nd biggest bow in the market (narrowly below The Dark Knight Rises and well above Oppenheimer). After just 2 days, the epic was already the 4th biggest IMAX release of the year. The BFI IMAX reported their biggest 3-day opening ever, with presales already putting the film within that site’s Top 3 all-time grosses.
France clocked $13.7M, delivering Nolan’s biggest ever opening in the market, significantly above Oppenheimer. The brand new Pathé Odysseum Montpellier, France’s first ever 70mm IMAX site, opened for our release and sold out all shows.
Italy opened to $11.5M, far above Oppenheimer and surpassing the lifetimes of Dunkirk and Tenet. The pic is Nolan’s biggest ever opening day and weekend, Universal’s biggest ever opening day and weekend, and the biggest opening days in both IMAX and 70mm.
In Australia, The Odyssey opened to $9.3M, delivering the biggest opening of the year and Nolan’s second biggest opening weekend (just off The Dark Knight Rises and well above Oppenheimer).
Germany debuted to $8.1M this weekend, delivering Nolan’s second biggest opening weekend (just off The Dark Knight Rises and above Oppenheimer). Thursday marked the biggest ever IMAX opening day(beating Avatar 3) and biggest 70mm opening day (beating Oppenheimer).
India, where Holland, Damon and Nolan traveled to, delivered $7.2M, the 2 Oscar winning filmmaker’s biggest ever opening in the market and Universal’s biggest 3-day opening of all time, already surpassing the lifetimes of The Dark Knight Rises, Dunkirk, Interstellar and Tenet. It has also achieved the biggest IMAX opening ever for a Hollywood film.
Mexico opened to $7M, Nolan’s second biggest opening in the market, narrowly behind The Dark Knight Rises and well ahead of Oppenheimer, already surpassing the lifetimes of Interstellar, Inception, Dunkirk and Tenet. The Odyssey achieved the market’s biggest IMAX opening day ever.
Spain counted $5.2M in its opening, a Nolan opening record in the market, well above Oppenheimer. The pic clocked the market’s biggest ever opening Friday and Saturday in IMAX and 70mm.
Brazil’s debut was $4.8M, nearly double Oppenheimer to achieve Nolan’s biggest ever opening in the market, also surpassing the lifetimes of Interstellar, Inception, Dunkirk and Tenet. Thursday achieved Nolan’s biggest opening day in the market and the biggest IMAX opening day of the year.
More…
SATURDAY UPDATE: Not sunny weather, nor World Cup is hindering Universal’s The Odyssey which as of this morning is on its way to becoming Christopher Nolan’s best global opening ever with $257.8M, which puts away his previous highs of The Dark Knight Rises ($249M WW debut), The Dark Knight ($198M WW) and Oppenheimer ($180M WW).
As far as the top global openings year-to-date, it’s the best for a live-action movie quite easily, but it’s third overall behind Universal/Illumination/Nintendo’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ($372.5M WW) and Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 5 ($312M WW).
With domestic at $120.5M, the best live-action debut in North America YTD, The Odyssey is shaping up for a $137.3M opening in 73 offshore markets including UK & Ireland, France, Australia, Germany, Mexico, and Brazil, That’s also the biggest ever opening for 2x Oscar winner Nolan at the international B.O., above Oppenheimer and The Dark Knight Rises. Even more so, he’s seeing several record openings of his career with Odyssey in 45 territories including France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Netherlands and Brazil. The feature take of Homer’s classic poem is also Universal’s biggest opening ever in 11 markets.
The Odyssey is also ranking as the second biggest R-rated opening of all time internationally, behind Deadpool & Wolverine ($233.3M).
We’ll have more updates for you tomorrow.
FRIDAY UPDATE: While Odysseus encountered many obstacles on his way home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, from Cyclops to Calypso, he doesn’t have to really worry about any, specifically the World Cup, in his march to the top of this weekend’s global box office.
Universal’s feature take of Homer’s epic poem from Christopher Nolan already has conquered close to $40M in its first few days at the worldwide B.O. ($39.8M to be exact). Broken out, that’s $17.6M in North American previews, as we’ve told you, plus another $22.2M running offshore cume. Seventy-three markets are going this weekend in more than 13,300 foreign locations and 25,100 screens, sans China, Japan, Korea and CIS. As we told you, that’s more than Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which debuted in the same markets across 11,300 sites and 17,500 screens in 2023. Thursday alone grossed $18.9M.
Offshore count for Imax is 440 screens, which includes seven Imax 70MM screens, two of which opened in time for Nolan’s latest. Additionally, The Odyssey is playing in 45 sites exhibiting the 70MM print and 56 sites that have the 35MM print. Across Wave 1 markets, The Odyssey has the broadest possible PLF screen footprint including 4DX, D-Box, Dolby Vision and leading PLF formats.
RELATED: ‘The Odyssey’ Review: Christopher Nolan Takes On Time, Myth And War In Epic Retelling
As we told you, UK is typically the alpha territory for Nolan, and had the country advanced to the final game of the World Cup on Sunday, we could have seen a ding in ticket sales. With Spain and Argentina facing off Sunday, there seems to be less anxiety. Again, the outlook heading into this weekend was for a $200M worldwide start. Entertainment stat org JustWatch reports that “60% of entertainment viewers say they plan to watch both The Odyssey on the big screen and the World Cup Final this weekend.” This is after a survey of 3,210 people conducted between May-July 2026 across France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and North America.
Here’s how the Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Tom Hollad, Jon Berthal, Charlize Theron ensemble went down abroad on Wednesday and Thursday:
RELATED: 45 Of The Most Anticipated Movies Of 2026
In France, Nolan’s latest reached close to $5M from 416K admissions, grossing $2.4M on Thursday from 228k admissions, +97% above Oppenheimer’s admissions on the same day. No surprise, the pic is the clear No.1 title in the market with 40% share of total admissions.
In Australia, The Odyssey counts a running total of $3.7M through Friday. Thursday achieved the biggest opening day for a non-superhero Nolan film behind The Dark Knight Rises, performing +51% above Oppeneheimer and +53% above Dune: Part Two. This was also the biggest opening day of the year, as well as the sixth biggest Universal opening day of all time.
Italy piace Odyssey motto with $2.5M on Thursday, lording No. 1 with an 88% share of the total B.O. That’s the biggest Nolan opening day in Italy, Universal’s biggest ever opening day, and the biggest ever July opening in the market. Excellente.
Muy arriba in Mexico for The Odyssey with the biggest Thursday ever for a Nolan pic at $1.5M, +70% above Oppenheimer. The Odyssey is No. 1 in the market with a 52% marketshare and 3x Toy Story 5.
RELATED: 10 Of The Best Christopher Nolan Movies & Where To Stream Them
Germany opened to $1.5M on Thursday, ranking No. 1 with a 54% share of the total box office and 13% ahead of Oppenheimer, also Nolan’s biggest non-superhero opening day in the market (just -8% behind The Dark Knight Rises).
Brazil is seeing $883K on Thursday, outstripping Oppenheimer by 85% to notch Nolan’s biggest opening day in the market and the biggest Imax opening day YTD, more than double Dune: Part Two and Top Gun Maverick.
