‘The Odyssey’ Starts Crushing Records on Its First Day at the Box Office

Christopher Nolan has built a career on turning release weekends into cultural events, and ‘The Odyssey‘ is proving to be no exception. Long before the first wide Friday numbers roll in, the film’s Thursday preview haul is already generating the kind of headlines usually reserved for opening weekend totals.

That early haul is turning heads across the industry. Universal’s Christopher Nolan epic sailed to roughly $15 million in Thursday night previews, a figure that ranks as the best previews so far this year for a live-action title, ahead of Lionsgate’s ‘Michael’, which posted $12.6 million in previews before a $97.2 million domestic opening. For a three-hour mythological epic built around a decade-old poem, that’s a remarkable start.

The comparison that’s generating the most buzz is the one to Nolan’s own filmography. Those early Thursday numbers already outpace ‘Oppenheimer’, which opened to $10.5 million in previews before going on to a $33 million Friday and an $82.4 million three-day weekend during the height of the Barbenheimer craze. Within Nolan’s own catalog, ‘The Odyssey’ currently ranks as his third best preview night domestically, trailing only ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ at $30.6 million and ‘The Dark Knight’ at $18.5 million.

Audience reception appears to be matching the ticket sales. The film’s audience score on Rotten Tomatoes stands at 96 percent, the best of Nolan’s career, surpassing the 94 percent scores earned by ‘Batman Begins’, ‘The Dark Knight’, and ‘Memento’, as well as the 91 percent audience grade for ‘Oppenheimer’. That kind of reception suggests the strong previews aren’t just a byproduct of hype but of genuine word of mouth building in real time.

Advance interest has been building for weeks, not just hours. Sources indicated advance ticket sales heading into the weekend were sitting somewhere between $30 million and $40 million, and IMAX 70mm showtimes reportedly sold out a full year in advance, meaning anyone hoping for a large format seat in the coming days will likely be stuck in the front row.

That demand comes despite the film’s R rating and a nearly three-hour runtime, both factors that can typically limit the number of daily showings a theater can schedule.

With those preview numbers now in the books, industry watchers are shifting focus to the full opening weekend.

Early estimates from Deadline pegged ‘The Odyssey’ for an $85 to $100 million domestic opening alongside $110 million overseas, putting the film on track for a global debut north of $200 million. If the momentum from Thursday night holds, Nolan’s mythological detour may end up rivaling the box office run that made ‘Oppenheimer’ one of the defining releases of its own summer.

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