Nolan’s The Odyssey sails to $264 million worldwide launch
Universal’s R-rated epic opened big globally, with Variety’s Rebecca Rubin saying Nolan’s name helped pull younger moviegoers into theaters.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
2 min read
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has charged out of the gate with a $264 million worldwide opening for Universal Pictures, according to Variety’s box office coverage.
The launch gave Imax a major weekend, too. Variety reported that the large-format theater company accounted for more than half of the film’s opening-weekend receipts, a striking result for Nolan’s first movie since 2023’s Oppenheimer.
On the Daily Variety podcast, Variety box office reporter Rebecca Rubin said the numbers showed how strongly Nolan can still pull audiences into theaters. The movie carried a reported $250 million production cost, and Rubin said there had been little doubt it would start strongly because anticipation around the director’s next release was so high.
Rubin pointed to the film’s format and rating as part of what made the debut stand out. She described The Odyssey as an R-rated sword-and-sandal epic, the sort of expensive, adult-skewing spectacle that few filmmakers could get mounted at that scale.
According to Rubin, Nolan has become a rare director whose name can sell tickets regardless of genre. She said moviegoers are showing up because he has a new film out, a level of loyalty that can separate a solid opening from a far larger one.
The audience breakdown also gave Universal reason to cheer. Rubin said the opening-weekend crowd was about 55% male, while 50% of ticket buyers were between 18 and 34. For a film in this genre, she said, that younger turnout was significant.
Rubin noted that some viewers had joked about the film being a classic “dad movie,” but the age data suggested a broader reach. She said another filmmaker might have seen the same kind of project skew older, especially with Matt Damon, whom she called more of a Gen X star, leading the cast as Odysseus.
The cast also includes millennial actors, Rubin said, but she credited Nolan as the main reason the film was able to reach multiple age groups. That range, she said on the podcast, could help the movie hold up in the weeks ahead.
The Odyssey is written, produced and directed by Nolan, with Damon starring as Odysseus. Variety’s coverage identifies Melinda Sue Gordon as the photographer behind released imagery from the Universal film.
The Daily Variety episode featuring Rubin’s box office discussion runs 12 minutes and 56 seconds and is available through Variety’s podcast feed and major podcast platforms.
This story draws on original reporting from Variety.