‘The Odyssey’ Passes ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ to Become Universal’s Second-Biggest Domestic Release Ever

Christopher Nolan has spent his career defying conventional wisdom about what kinds of films can dominate the box office, and his latest project has continued that trend well into the fall season. Few original, R-rated epics have managed to stay in theatrical release this long while still posting numbers that rival modern franchise blockbusters.

That staying power has been a defining feature of Nolan’s mythological epic since it first opened back in July. Rather than fading after a strong debut, the film has continued climbing the all-time charts week after week, surprising box office analysts who initially projected a much shorter theatrical shelf life for an original story without an established franchise behind it.

That momentum has now pushed the film past a significant new milestone. ‘The Odyssey’ has reached $574.9 million at the domestic box office, surpassing ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ to become Universal’s second-highest-grossing film ever in North America, trailing only the studio’s own ‘Jurassic World.’

That achievement is even more notable given how quickly expectations for the film have shifted over the past several weeks. Just two weeks earlier, $600 million domestically looked like a realistic ceiling for the film’s total run; now that same number has effectively become a floor rather than a stretch goal, with industry estimates now projecting a final domestic total somewhere between $610 million and $630 million.

Part of what’s fueling that revised outlook is the film’s unusually consistent daily performance. ‘The Odyssey’ recently completed 49 straight days of earning over $1 million domestically, surpassing both ‘Michael’ and ‘The Passion of the Christ’ for the fifth-longest such streak at the box office in the post-COVID era.

That endurance has also allowed the film to reclaim the number one spot domestically during the Labor Day stretch, overtaking ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ nearly two months into its own theatrical run. The film’s latest Wednesday performance pulled in $1.8 million, marking just a 21.7% drop from the previous week despite losing 474 theaters the previous Friday, a hold rate that’s become a genuine talking point among box office analysts tracking the film’s trajectory.

Globally, ‘The Odyssey’ has already become Christopher Nolan’s highest-grossing film of all time, surpassing both ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ earlier this summer. The film also recently crossed $1 billion overseas, becoming the first R-rated film ever to reach that milestone internationally, and currently ranks as the second-highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time behind only ‘Deadpool & Wolverine.’

With ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ now in the rearview mirror, attention has shifted to whether ‘The Odyssey’ can eventually challenge ‘Jurassic World’s’ $653.4 million domestic total to become Universal’s all-time biggest release in North America. Current projections suggest the film would need a jump of roughly 26% from its current pace to close that gap, making the record a longshot but not entirely out of reach given how resilient its holds have remained.

The film has also become the biggest release in IMAX history, generating close to $289 million in ticket sales through that format alone. With premium format demand continuing to drive turnout well into the fall and the film’s daily numbers still holding steady, ‘The Odyssey’ shows few signs of slowing down as it approaches the two-month mark of its theatrical run.

Starring Matt Damon as Odysseus alongside an ensemble that includes Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson and Zendaya, ‘The Odyssey’ has become one of the defining theatrical success stories of the year. Given how rare it’s become for an original, adult-skewing epic to sustain this level of box office momentum for this long, the film’s continued climb up Universal’s all-time charts stands as a genuine outlier in the modern blockbuster landscape.

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