Matt Damon plays Ulysses in Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey”.
Universal
Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” is off to an epic start.
THE Universal the film adaptation grossed an estimated $124.5 million in its opening weekend as audiences flocked to high-end large format screenings, especially IMAX theaters.
“Death, taxes and Christopher Nolan,” said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory. “He reinvented the superhero genre, captured the zeitgeist with multiple thought-provoking originals, and transformed a three-hour biopic into a global blockbuster. He did it again with the retelling of a 2,700-year-old poem that serves as the foundation for what we recognize as modern storytelling.”
IMAX reported nearly $30 million in estimated ticket sales for the weekend, representing about 24% of domestic opening traffic.
Internationally, “The Odyssey” earned $139.6 million, bringing the weekend total to $264.1 million. IMAX contributed about $22 million, or 15 percent, to the film’s international debut. The film has not yet been released in China, Japan and South Korea.
“The Odyssey” is Nolan’s third-best domestic opening weekend and highest global opening, according to Rentrak data.
About 7.5 million tickets were sold domestically for the film, according to data from EntTelligence. Premium large format screenings accounted for 45% of tickets sold, costing an average of $19 each. The coveted 70mm screenings accounted for 5% of all tickets sold over the weekend and averaged nearly $22.50.
“It was always going to be a good movie,” IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond told CNBC. “It had a great cast, a great director and great filming locations. But I think what IMAX did was help turn this great film into a massive cultural event on a global scale.”
“The Odyssey” should continue to attract moviegoers in the weeks to come. Its direct competition was limited until the release of Sony And Marvel “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” on July 31 and will have a theatrical exclusive in IMAX theaters for the next three weeks.
Not to mention that tickets for “The Odyssey”, some of which have been on sale since July 2025, are sold in theaters showing the coveted 70mm screenings of the film. A similar phenomenon was observed in 2023 when Nolan released the Oscar-winning biopic “Oppenheimer.”
The director’s films have become event cinema, in part because Nolan uses cutting-edge equipment and filming techniques to capture the images. For “The Odyssey,” he used IMAX brand cameras and favored filming locations and practical effects rather than computer-generated images. The results are cinematic spectacles that demand to be seen on the biggest screens and with the best sound systems.
“Premium screen screenings, particularly IMAX, sell out weeks in advance for Nolan releases, ensuring a long box office runway for ‘The Odyssey’ as positive word of mouth takes hold,” Robbins said. “Fans often drive hours just to find auditoriums showing the film as close to what Nolan wanted as possible.”
IMAX’s Gelfond noted that 42 IMAX locations had showings between midnight and 3 a.m. over the weekend to meet demand. The company is extending the film’s showing in its theaters for a fifth week, with ticket sales for some of those screenings already sold out, Gelfond said.
“It’s not just the old guard of moviegoers who come to see films like ‘The Odyssey’ and ‘Oppenheimer,'” Robbins said. “Nolan has a rare pull among young millennials and Generation Z, which is critically important to the continued evolution of the theater sector.”
Half of moviegoers were aged 18 to 34 – a coveted demographic target that cinemas have been trying to win back since the pandemic.
“Christopher Nolan is one of the few directors whose name on the marquee is a guarantee of box office success,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of market trends at Rentrak. “[His] His entire body of work has endeared him to movie buffs and cinema lovers around the world. He’s truly in a class of his own.”
Disclosure: Versant Media is the parent company of CNBC and Fandango.