‘The Odyssey’ Can’t Stop Breaking Box Office Records Overseas

Christopher Nolan’s box office pull has never really needed proving, but the international rollout for ‘The Odyssey’ has still managed to catch even longtime industry watchers off guard. As Universal’s marketing machine pushed the film’s IMAX credentials hard across every territory, early numbers from several key international markets are now confirming that the hype translated directly into ticket sales.

Mexico has emerged as one of the standout markets in that global rollout. According to Deadline’s own box office tracking, ‘The Odyssey’ pulled in 1.5 million dollars during its Thursday opening day in the country, marking the biggest Thursday ever recorded for a Nolan film in that market and landing more than 70 percent above what ‘Oppenheimer’ managed there back in 2023.

That single-day performance also made the film Mexico’s outright box office leader, capturing a commanding 52 percent share of the entire market and outperforming ‘Toy Story 5’ by a factor of three. For a three-hour, R-rated adaptation of an ancient Greek epic, that kind of dominance over a major animated family release speaks to just how far Nolan’s brand has traveled beyond his usual genre lanes.

The film’s premium format performance has been especially notable, reportedly landing as the third biggest IMAX opening day of all time in Mexico, trailing only ‘Avengers: Endgame’ and ‘Avengers: Infinity War’. Sitting that close to two of the biggest superhero crossover events in box office history is a genuinely rare feat for a non-franchise, original story driven film, particularly one without any built in comic book audience to draw from.

Looking ahead to the full opening frame, early estimates suggest ‘The Odyssey’ could land anywhere between 7 million and 9 million dollars over its four-day opening in Mexico, with the final number likely shaped by how the ongoing FIFA World Cup final affects theater attendance over the same weekend. Even the lower end of that range would be enough to top Nolan’s previous non-Batman opening in the market, while the higher end would push the film remarkably close to matching his existing all-time Mexico record.

That existing record belongs to ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, which set the bar in the market at 9.7 million dollars, a number that has stood as Nolan’s benchmark in Mexico for well over a decade. For context, ‘The Dark Knight’ opened to 7 million dollars in the country, while ‘Oppenheimer’ managed 5.4 million dollars during its own run, meaning ‘The Odyssey’ is already positioned to comfortably surpass one Nolan blockbuster and potentially threaten another.

Mexico is far from the only international market delivering strong early numbers for the film. Deadline’s global tracking also flagged standout Thursday performances in Germany, where the film opened to 1.5 million dollars and ranked number one with a 54 percent market share, and in Brazil, where ‘The Odyssey’ outpaced ‘Oppenheimer’ by 85 percent to notch both Nolan’s biggest opening day in that market and the country’s biggest IMAX opening day of the year so far.

With the film’s worldwide opening weekend outlook already sitting north of 200 million dollars, these individual market records are painting a picture of a genuinely global box office event rather than a hit confined to North America.

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