Center L to R: Jimmy Gonzales is Cepheus, Matt Damon is Odysseus and Himesh Patel is Eurylochus in THE ODYSSEY, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.
Melinda Sue Gordon
The most significant point of comparison to The Odyssey at the box office was always going to be Oppenheimer, another R-rated Christopher Nolan biopic that went on to earn nearly $1 billion worldwide. But so far, The Odyssey is wildly outpacing it.
The final domestic box-office earnings for Oppenheimer after 595 days were $330 million. Now, The Odyssey will pass that figure just 13 days after release. This Monday, The Odyssey earned $14.7 million, and it’s expected to go higher than that on Tuesday when the final figures come in, passing that milestone.
The Odyssey, perhaps unsurprisingly, has not yet passed Nolan’s The Dark Knight or The Dark Knight Rises’ domestic box office totals, which were $534 million and $448 million, respectively. Though that’s a pair of PG-13 Batman movies, one of which is considered perhaps the best superhero feature ever made. And still, The Odyssey may get close, if not pass one or both. It’s not impossible.
Forecasts are that even this weekend’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day is not likely to cause some sort of huge crash for The Odyssey, with around a $45 million estimate for the film’s third weekend, in addition to these incredibly high daily totals. How long the film’s legs are remains to be seen, but it will be a staple in theaters for a while to come.
It is now almost certain that The Odyssey will cross $1 billion at the box office by the end of its run, which would pass Oppenheimer’s $975 million. The movies that have made $1 billion or more this year so far are Toy Story 5 ($1.026 billion), Michael ($1.016 billion, unseating Oppenheimer for the highest-earning biopic of all time) and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ($1.011 billion).
The two likely earners to surpass those are both Marvel features, Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday. Judging by the trajectory of both, Spider-Man seems likely to win the year. The last film, Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021, made $1.9 billion, becoming one of the highest-earning films ever. So, needless to say, expectations are high for Brand New Day, which some critics are calling the best Spider-Man film ever. That opens tomorrow.
Regardless, The Odyssey will be one of the biggest success stories of the year, and this is not even wading into inevitable Oscar buzz, something that we are not going to see with Marvel features, to be sure. But that’s a conversation for another day.
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