Elon Musk Picking ‘The Odyssey’ to Trash Could Be His Worst Decision Yet

Christopher Nolan has built a career on turning skeptics into believers, and his latest historical epic appears to be following that same pattern in dramatic fashion. ‘The Odyssey’ arrived in theaters on July 17, carrying months of online controversy with it, the kind of pre-release noise that typically follows a film long after opening weekend fades.

That controversy centered largely on one very vocal critic. Elon Musk spent months publicly attacking Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic poem, repeatedly targeting the casting of Lupita Nyong’o and Elliot Page and accusing the director of losing his integrity over the choices.

Now, just weeks after release, ‘The Odyssey’ has become one of the biggest box office success stories of the year, and it is on pace to overtake the entire lifetime worldwide total of Matt Damon’s own ‘Interstellar’ within days. The film has already crossed $639.6 million globally after only two weekends in theaters, putting it within striking distance of Interstellar’s $722 million lifetime haul, including reissues.

The numbers tell a story that stands in sharp contrast to Musk’s repeated predictions of failure. ‘The Odyssey’ opened with $263.7 million worldwide, the biggest global debut of Nolan’s career, and followed that with an $87 million domestic second weekend that broke his own previous record set by ‘The Dark Knight’.

Much of that momentum has been fueled by IMAX, where ‘The Odyssey’ has already become the highest-grossing sophomore weekend in the format’s history. IMAX chief executive Richard Gelfond credited the film’s pull directly to Nolan’s filmmaking, calling it the kind of masterwork that draws devoted fans back for multiple viewings while introducing new audiences to the format.

Musk’s criticism did not stop at box office predictions. He publicly claimed Nolan had desecrated Homer’s original text and accused the director of boosting diversity in his casting specifically to court Oscar consideration, a claim that misrepresented the Academy’s actual eligibility requirements. He has since announced plans to produce his own AI generated version of the story using his company’s Grok technology, which he says will arrive sometime in 2026 and aim for historical accuracy.

That plan has drawn its own wave of criticism from figures within the film industry. Director Scott Derrickson publicly dismissed Musk’s understanding of cinema entirely, arguing that the billionaire’s opinions on the art form carry little weight given his track record of commentary on the subject.

Critical reception for ‘The Odyssey’ has also complicated the narrative Musk has tried to build around the film. The movie holds a certified fresh 98 percent score from critics, higher than Nolan’s own Best Picture-winning ‘Oppenheimer’, with reviewers largely dismissing the casting backlash as irrelevant to the finished product.

Nolan himself has mostly avoided engaging directly with Musk’s criticism, choosing instead to address the broader wave of pre-release backlash in general terms. He has noted that conversations happening before people actually see a film are ultimately irrelevant, pointing to similar backlash he faced years earlier over casting decisions in his ‘Batman’ trilogy.

With ‘The Odyssey’ now positioned to potentially become Damon’s biggest global earner ever and one of Nolan’s most successful films to date, the gap between Musk’s public predictions and the film’s actual performance has become one of the more talked-about subplots of this summer’s box office season.

‘The Odyssey’ is currently playing in theaters worldwide.

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