‘The Odyssey’ Is About to Pull off One of the Biggest Box Office Feats of Christopher Nolan’s Career

Two weeks into its theatrical run, Christopher Nolan’s latest epic shows absolutely no sign of slowing down, and the numbers keep piling up in increasingly historic fashion. What started as a massive opening weekend has turned into one of the most sustained box office runs of the year, with ‘The Odyssey’ continuing to dominate ticket sales well past its debut.

Universal’s adaptation of Homer’s ancient epic poem opened to a staggering $123.5 million domestically, the biggest weekend debut of any movie so far in 2026. That kind of launch alone would have been enough to call the film a success, but its ability to hold onto audiences in the weeks since has turned this into something closer to a genuine box office phenomenon.

The film’s second weekend brought in another $87 million, marking Nolan’s best sophomore frame ever at the domestic box office and pushing its 10-day total past $286 million. According to Deadline, that weekend also ranks as the second-best sophomore outing ever for an R-rated film, trailing only ‘Deadpool & Wolverine.’

Weekday performance has been just as remarkable. ‘The Odyssey’ posted Nolan’s best-ever Tuesday at the domestic box office with over $21 million, edging past his previous record set by ‘The Dark Knight’ back in 2008, and landing as the second-best Tuesday of the year behind only ‘Toy Story 5.’

That kind of weekday strength, paired with unusually modest day-to-day drops for a film of this scale, has kept ‘The Odyssey’ on pace to blow past several major benchmarks. With a domestic total already sitting in the high $280 million to $290 million range after less than two weeks, the film is closing in fast on Nolan’s own ‘Oppenheimer,’ which finished its entire theatrical run with $330 million domestically.

If that trajectory holds, ‘The Odyssey’ could surpass Oppenheimer’s full domestic total in less than two weeks of release, a pace that would be nothing short of remarkable for a three-hour, R-rated literary adaptation. That would also push the film into position as one of Nolan’s highest-grossing domestic releases yet, trailing only his two ‘Dark Knight’ films at the very top of his career rankings.

Globally, the film has already cleared roughly $640 million and continues climbing steadily, buoyed by strong holds in international markets alongside its domestic dominance. Much of that success has been fueled by the film’s massive Imax presence, having been shot entirely using Imax cameras, a first for any feature film, which has helped it become one of the format’s fastest releases ever to reach $100 million.

The film’s ensemble cast, led by Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway alongside Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, and Charlize Theron, has clearly resonated with audiences hungry for large-scale, prestige-driven filmmaking. That appeal has helped the film maintain unusually strong legs even as competing releases have entered the marketplace around it.

With ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ now also in theaters, exhibitors are reportedly optimistic about the pairing of two major hits carrying the industry through what’s typically a quieter stretch of the summer season. Rather than cannibalizing each other’s audiences, both films appear positioned to benefit from a moviegoing public eager to return to theaters in large numbers.

As ‘The Odyssey’ continues its historic march through the record books, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Nolan has delivered not just a critical success, but one of the defining box office stories of the year.

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