Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ Just Joined an Elite Box Office Club That Includes ‘Frozen’ and ‘Avatar’

Summer blockbusters usually fade fast once September rolls around, but Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ has refused to follow that script. Nearly two months after its release, the film is still pulling in numbers that would be impressive for a fresh opening weekend, let alone a title deep into its theatrical run.

Since debuting on July 17, the Matt Damon-led epic has become one of the defining box office stories of the year, repeatedly setting records for Nolan, for Universal, and for Imax itself. Even as the film has aged past the two-month mark, it continues showing the kind of staying power that most modern blockbusters simply don’t have anymore.

That staying power reached a new milestone this week. ‘The Odyssey’ has now spent 53 consecutive days grossing above $1,000,000 domestically, putting it in rare company alongside films like ‘Avatar: The Way of Water,’ ‘Toy Story 4,’ ‘Aladdin,’ ‘Incredibles 2,’ ‘The Avengers,’ ‘The Hangover,’ and ‘Shrek,’ all of which had streaks of 52 days.

The film’s momentum got another boost heading into the Labor Day holiday. ‘The Odyssey’ posted a strong performance on the holiday Monday, marking one of the best 8th-Monday results of all time for a film this deep into release, even as it lost more theaters heading into the weekend.

That performance came with a substantial jump from the previous Monday, showing that the holiday period gave the film a real second wind rather than just a modest bump. It’s a notable feat for a movie competing against its own natural decline curve almost two months into release.

As of this week, ‘The Odyssey’ has crossed $589,000,000 domestically, a figure that already places it among Nolan’s biggest hits ever, alongside a worldwide total that has pushed past $1,600,000,000. The film became just the 17th movie ever to cross $1,000,000,000 internationally, and notably the first Hollywood original that isn’t a sequel or remake to do so since ‘Avatar’ back in 2009.

With momentum continuing into the weekend, the film is on pace to push its domestic haul past $600,000,000 in the near future, a total that once seemed unlikely for a nearly three-hour adaptation of a 3,000-year-old poem.

Much of that continued strength owes itself to Nolan’s decision to shoot the entire film on Imax 70mm cameras, a first for a commercial feature. Imax has responded by repeatedly extending the film’s run in the format, most recently pushing screenings through the end of September, nearly a month and a half beyond its original cutoff date.

Imax CEO Rich Gelfond addressed the film’s unusual staying power directly, saying that ‘The Odyssey’ has crossed over from hit blockbuster to global cultural event, with audiences expected to keep showing up in the format for weeks or months to come. That kind of institutional backing from Imax itself underscores just how unusual this box office run has become.

With IMAX screens locked in through September and the film still performing well above typical late-run numbers, ‘The Odyssey’ looks positioned to keep climbing the all-time domestic charts in the weeks ahead. Given how rare it is for an original, adult-skewing drama to sustain this kind of momentum two months after release, the film’s final domestic total could end up reshaping expectations for what a non-franchise blockbuster can achieve in theaters.

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