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 in like-for-likes), 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 in like-for-like markets. 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.
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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:
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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.
RELATED: ‘The Odyssey’ World Premiere Red Carpet Photos: Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Tom Holland & More
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.
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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.
RELATED: The Story Behind Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’: Illustrated Artworks Of The Legendary Tales Related To Gods, Monsters & Odysseus’ Epic Return
