‘The Odyssey’ Just Set a Box Office Record That Even Deadpool Couldn’t Touch

Christopher Nolan’s box office run has already been generating headlines all week, but the final Thursday preview numbers for ‘The Odyssey’ have pushed the conversation into genuinely historic territory. What started as strong early estimates has now solidified into one of the biggest single-night hauls of the year, and the record books are struggling to keep up.

The final tally landed even higher than initial reports suggested. Universal confirmed Friday morning that Thursday night previews for ‘The Odyssey’ hit $17.6 million, officially making it the best preview number of 2026 so far, narrowly edging out ‘Toy Story 5’s’ $17.5 million. That result also nearly doubled ‘Oppenheimer’s’ $10.5 million previews, marking Nolan’s biggest non-Batman preview night in his career.

Within Nolan’s own filmography, the number places ‘The Odyssey’ in rare company. The film now ranks as the third best preview night of Nolan’s career, trailing only ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ at $30.6 million and ‘The Dark Knight’ at $18.5 million. Given that both of those films were riding the momentum of one of the most beloved superhero franchises ever made, pulling within striking distance of them with an original mythological epic is no small feat.

The R-rated comparisons are where the number really stands out. A breakdown of Thursday’s gross showed 58 percent came from IMAX, premium large format, and 70mm prints combined, with IMAX digital screens accounting for 25 percent and IMAX 70mm pulling another five percent despite only 34 of those screens existing worldwide. Fandango confirmed the film is its number one preseller of 2026, with advance ticket sales sitting around 40 million dollars heading into the weekend.

That preview strength has already reshaped expectations for the full opening weekend. Deadline is now projecting an opening weekend north of 100 million dollars, sitting at the upper end of the 80 million to 120 million dollar range trackers had been watching. Anywhere in that range would mark Nolan’s biggest domestic launch since ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ opened to 160 million dollars back in 2012.

With reviews already glowing and audience scores tracking as some of the best of Nolan’s career, the only real suspense left is how high the final weekend number climbs once Friday and Saturday grosses roll in.

For a nearly three-hour R-rated adaptation of a 2,700 year old poem, going toe to toe with franchise juggernauts on opening night numbers is the kind of story box office analysts will be dissecting for weeks.

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