‘The Odyssey’ Is Knocking on the Door of the All-Time Box Office Top 10, and It May Need an Encore to Get In
Christopher Nolan has never made a quiet movie, but even by his standards, ‘The Odyssey’ has had a long and loud voyage. The Homer-inspired epic arrived in July and has refused to leave the conversation since.
It has become a rare kind of modern hit, a big-budget original story that audiences kept returning to for months. That staying power is now putting it within sight of one of Hollywood’s most exclusive lists.
‘The Odyssey’ is now sitting at roughly $1.799 billion worldwide, which leaves it just short of the all-time top 10 highest-grossing movies. The film that stands in the way is ‘Zootopia 2,’ which sits at about $1.870 billion, a gap of roughly $71 million. With the run winding down, tracking suggests Nolan’s epic may need a theatrical re-release to close it.
🚨🤩 #TheOdyssey is now at ~$1.799B box office worldwide! At this point to break into the TOP 10 highest-grossing movies of all time (Zootopia 2 too far at $1.870B). we will need The Odyssey: Encore 👀 Budget💸: $250M – profit🎯✅ https://t.co/8QVS2G0X2Q
— Box Office Forecast 🎬 (@BoxOfficeFcst) November 2, 2026
The momentum started on opening weekend. ‘The Odyssey’ debuted with $264.1 million worldwide, the biggest global opening of Nolan’s career. In North America it earned $124.5 million, which was the biggest live-action debut of 2026 and the biggest R-rated opening of the year.
Within 3 weeks it crossed $1 billion, doing so before it even opened in China. It then passed ‘The Dark Knight Rises,’ which had held Nolan’s personal record at $1.085 billion for years. Nolan’s films have now grossed well over $7 billion in total.
The milestones kept coming. The film overtook ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ which finished at $1.338 billion, to become the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever. It also passed ‘Jurassic World’ to become Universal’s biggest film worldwide.
‘The Odyssey’ set an IMAX record too. At the time it passed ‘Avatar’ for the format’s biggest release ever, with about $289 million from IMAX screens, and Nolan shot the entire film on IMAX cameras.
There was a notable first as well. Universal noted it was the first non-sequel and non-remake to gross more than $1 billion internationally since 2009.
The final trailer for Christopher Nolan’s ‘THE ODYSSEY’ has been released. In theaters on July 17. https://t.co/xn42TcX4aG
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) July 1, 2026
The final numbers lean heavily overseas. The film finished its North American run at about $625.5 million, roughly 34.8% of the total. International audiences supplied about $1.17 billion, or 65.2%.
That domestic total is only about $11 million short of ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ which finished with $636.7 million. It also makes ‘The Odyssey’ Universal’s second-biggest domestic release, behind only ‘Jurassic World’ at $653.4 million.
Nolan’s previous film, ‘Oppenheimer,’ earned about $975.8 million worldwide in 2023, so the jump is considerable. A $250 million budget also means the film cleared its costs by a wide margin.
The all-time top 10 is a tough neighborhood. ‘Zootopia 2’ only recently climbed into it, following a Thanksgiving 2025 debut that made it the fastest PG-rated film to cross $1 billion.
Reported totals vary slightly depending on who is counting, with some trackers placing ‘The Odyssey’ a little above or below the $1.8 billion mark. Several outlets expect it to end its run at around that figure, short of the $2 billion line.
A re-release is the obvious route. The film has already returned to IMAX screens after briefly losing shows to newer releases, and that kind of second wind could add the final millions. Whether Universal chooses to launch a full encore remains to be seen.
The commercial run is feeding into awards talk too. Gold Derby currently lists ‘The Odyssey’ at the top of its Best Picture odds and as the highest-grossing film in this year’s race.
That matters because the top domestic grosser among Best Picture nominees hasn’t won since ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ in 2009. If Nolan’s epic breaks that streak, it would cap an extraordinary year.
For a project built on an ancient text, it has rewritten what audiences will still pay to see on a giant screen. Even if it falls just short of the top 10, the voyage has already earned its place in box office history.
Should Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey get a theatrical re-release to break into the all-time box office top 10?
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