Image via Universal/MovieStillsDB
Published Aug 6, 2026, 3:00 PM EDT
James Hunt is a writer and editor based in Newcastle, UK. A Sports Journalism graduate from the University of Sunderland, he quickly realized that supporting his local football (or "soccer") team, Sunderland AFC, was painful enough without having to write about it, so decided to write a load of nonsense about movies and TV instead.
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The Odyssey looks guaranteed to smash a Christopher Nolan record set by his final Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises. The director's adaptation of Homer's classic has achieved both incredible commercial success and wide critical acclaim, and should complete the perfect trifecta by adding in awards glory when that season comes around in a few months. Of course, none of this should be surprising with Nolan, who is established as one of the greatest filmmakers of the 21st Century, but the sheer scale of the achievement perhaps should be.
At the time of writing, The Odyssey's box office total stands at $930 million worldwide [via Box Office Mojo], with over $400m coming domestically. It had the biggest opening for a Nolan movie, his biggest domestic opening for a non-Batman Nolan movie, and is already the fourth highest-grossing R-Rated movie of all time, sitting behind Deadpool & Wolverine ($1.3 billion), Joker ($1bn), and Nolan's previous release, Oppenheimer ($976m). Heading into just its fourth weekend in theaters, it looks certain to eventually overtake at least the latter two of those, and break more records along the way.
There are no signs of things slowing down: indeed, showings of the film in IMAX 70mm are sold out in various locations for the next month, if not longer. And as its box office continues to grow and grow, so too will it get closer to overtaking the ultimate Nolan record: overtaking The Dark Knight Rises and becoming his highest-grossing movie of all time worldwide.
How Much The Odyssey Is Going To Make & How It Can Beat The Dark Knight Rises
The Dark Knight Rises made $1.085bn when it released back in 2012, making it Nolan's highest-grossing movie, and the second to cross the billion-dollar barrier, after The Dark Knight (1.009bn). Given The Odyssey is currently tracking to hit $1bn worldwide this weekend, with over another month to go in theaters after that, then it'd take a major, sudden drop for it to fail to beat his two Batman movies and claim the #1 spot. Current projections range from $1.2-1.4bn, so it looks like it's going to destroy that record.
Similar can be said on the domestic front. Per Box Office Theory, The Odyssey is expected to overtake The Dark Knight Rises' domestic total of $448m, leaving it as his second-biggest U.S. movie, behind The Dark Knight ($535m), though catching that isn't off the table either. It should be noted that all of these numbers are unadjusted for inflation: that would put both The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises at around $1.5-1.6bn, ahead of where The Odyssey will likely end up.
Why The Odyssey's Box Office Is Breaking So Many Records
There are a myriad of factors that've propelled The Odyssey to such incredible box office success. That it has great reviews (94% on Rotten Tomatoes), strong word of mouth (97% on Rotten Tomatoes with audiences, plus an A CinemaScore), and such a stacked cast will multi-generational appeal all very much help and have played a big part in both its initial and sustained success, the two biggest factors are IMAX and Nolan himself. On the former, this was something that was marketed as a true IMAX experience, becoming the first movie to be shot entirely with IMAX cameras.
One year before it released, tickets went on sale for select IMAX 70mm showings and sold out within hours, which not only highlighted the demand to see this on the biggest screen possible, but basically kick-started its built-in marketing campaign: that is a can't-miss movie, whether that's in a Premium Large Format or not, but the pricier PLFs definitely help push that box office higher. The Odyssey had the second-biggest domestic IMAX opening ever ($29.6m), behind only Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($30m).
It's had the benefit of IMAX exclusivity for several weeks, and while it will lose some to Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the ability to watch (or rewatch) in those formats, and the potential for 70mm screenings, will keep driving audiences to it. Brand New Day's performance itself has perhaps helped more than hurt things: together, the pair have set the box office alight after a quiet end to June and slow start to July, suggesting that people had been waiting for these two movies, and that there's a real enthusiasm to get to theaters to see them.
This is now part of the Nolan experience. The director is one of the few whose name alone can sell tickets to a movie; according to PostTrak surveys after its opening [via THR], Nolan was the #1 reason cited by audiences as to why they went to see the movie. With The Dark Knight Trilogy, The Prestige, Inception, and Interstellar, through to 2023's Oppenheimer, he has a reputation not only as a director who does not miss, but whose movies are events that can't be missed, with such amazing scale and spectacle they need to be seen in theaters.
The Odyssey's Box Office Highlights How Hollywood Has Changed
2026 has been an interesting year for the box office, and currently looks like being Hollywood's biggest since 2019. That's cause for celebration after so many post-Covid 19 struggles, but The Odyssey overtaking a Batman movie has Nolan's biggest is particularly intriguing in showcasing a shift in moviegoing habits. There is, certainly, room for the old franchises, as proved by Brand New Day, and as will be proved again by Avengers: Doomsday.
Increasingly, though, there is also a demand for originality (and, yes, in movie terms, The Odyssey does count, even if it is based on a story that's thousands of years old; it's not a franchise) and the hope to recapture a shared experience. So many of the year's biggest movies are the ones that demand to be seen on a big screen, and/or with a packed audience (Project Hail Mary and Obsession represent the two sides of that coin very well).
That's helped with The Odyssey, which feels unlike anything else we've witnessed in recent years, with an astonishing commitment to its craft and practical effects that give it a real sense of authenticity, even as its bringing to life a Cyclops and other monsters. This particularly helps capture the Gen Z audience, one of the most lucrative now for studios to tap into (again, see Obsession, and also Backrooms), and who made up a decent chunk of The Odyssey's moviegoers as well.
Come the end of the year, it'll probably still be Avengers that tops the charts, alongside Spider-Man, much like how, in 2012, it was Avengers and Batman (and James Bond). But The Odyssey, Project Hail Mary, and other hits, along with the box office disappointments of things like The Mandalorian and Grogu, Masters of the Universe, and Moana, also help to show that this is a changing landscape, but one where Nolan, at least, is still king.
The Odyssey is now playing in theaters nationwide.
Release Date July 15, 2026
Runtime 173 minutes
English (US) ·