Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ Just Delivered One of France’s Biggest Opening Days of the Year

France has always been one of Christopher Nolan’s most reliable markets, a country where his films tend to draw crowds that rival, and sometimes surpass, what he pulls in domestically. With ‘The Odyssey’ rolling out internationally ahead of its wider global release, all eyes were on how French audiences would respond to his three-hour epic adaptation of Homer.

The film arrived in French theaters a day ahead of its American debut, giving the country a first real look at how the box office rollout was shaping up. Given the scale of the production and the star power behind it, expectations were already running high heading into opening day.

Those expectations were met and then some. ‘The Odyssey’ pulled in 232,972 admissions on its first day in French theaters, marking the third biggest single day opening of the year in the country, trailing only ‘Michael’ and ‘Super Mario Galaxy: Le Film.’

To put that figure in perspective, ‘The Odyssey’ accounted for roughly 94 percent of all admissions recorded across every new release that week in France. That kind of dominance on a single opening day is a clear signal that audiences overwhelmingly chose Nolan’s epic over any other new option in theaters.

The film also posted a strong average of 76 admissions per screening, ranking it fourth among the best per screening averages for a Wednesday release in France this year. Only ‘Michael,’ the Stray Kids concert film and ‘Backrooms’ managed to outperform it on that specific metric.

Looking at how ‘The Odyssey’ compares within Nolan’s own filmography adds even more context to the achievement. The opening day total sits well above ‘Oppenheimer,’ which drew about 160,000 admissions on its first day in France back in 2023, though it lands roughly in line with ‘Tenet,’ which pulled in around 236,000 admissions on its opening day in August of 2020.

The early Paris numbers were just as encouraging for Universal. ‘The Odyssey’ topped every other new release across Parisian first screenings before 2 p.m. with 7,603 admissions across 34 cinemas, marking the best opening of its kind for the capital in seven months and the third best post-pandemic performance in that specific slot.

Those numbers also put the film ahead of several of Nolan’s own past releases in that same Parisian metric, outperforming ‘Inception,’ ‘The Dark Knight,’ ‘Oppenheimer,’ ‘Batman Begins,’ ‘Interstellar’ and ‘Dunkirk’ in early Paris admissions, while still trailing ‘The Dark Knight Rises.’

With such a strong first day behind it, attention now turns to whether ‘The Odyssey’ can chase down Nolan’s biggest French benchmarks. ‘Oppenheimer’ finished its opening week with 1.1 million admissions in France on its way to a final tally of 4.5 million, while ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ still holds the director’s all-time French record with 1.8 million admissions in its debut week.

A strong French opening carries extra weight given how central the country has historically been to Nolan’s international success. His films have consistently found some of their biggest overseas audiences in markets like France, the UK, and Germany, and an opening day performance this strong suggests the same pattern is holding true for ‘The Odyssey.’

It also arrives as reassuring news for Universal following a mixed run of recent releases in the French market. With ‘The Odyssey’ now proving it can go toe to toe with the year’s biggest hits on a single opening day, the film looks well-positioned heading into its opening weekend both in France and across the rest of the world.

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