READ THE ODYSSEY: IMAX-Maxing by Patrick Lugo and Gene Ching
The Odyssey Box Office Marks New Peak for Nolan, New Low for Social Media Malcontents
The Odyssey just scored Christopher Nolan’s best non-sequel opening and is the year’s third highest debut. Not bad for a movie prominent X users suggested would hurt “Western civilization.”
By David Crow|July 20, 2026|
Photo: Universal Pictures
As it turns out, audiences love a Christopher Nolan movie that leans into the epic imagery of heroes and monsters, and all with grand emotional stakes. Who would have guessed otherwise?
Apparently quite a few folks, as you might have noticed if you spent any significant time on social media and video sharing apps like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and especially X, the latter of which is owned by the richest man in the world. Indeed, in one week alone last May, Elon Musk posted 60 times about his vocal misgivings for the then upcoming Nolan adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey. Even so, this apprehension clearly hasn’t trickled down to regular moviegoers.I
This past weekend’s release of The Odyssey grossed an estimated $124.5 million across three days—plus Thursday night previews—well above what prognosticators last week were suggesting would open around $105 million. Furthermore, it is the highest domestic start of the year for a live-action movie, falling only behind Toy Story 5 ($159.7 million) and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ($131.7 million). It’s also something of a coup for Nolan, marking the highest domestic opening of his career that is neither a sequel or a Batman movie. (His biggest openings remain The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises with $158.4 million and $160.9 million, respectively.) And it is also his biggest global release, period, hitting $264.1 million across the weekend.
Domestically these might not be Batman numbers, but the fact The Odyssey is outpacing what became leggy and beloved hits like Inception, Interstellar, and Oppenheimer, the latter of which benefitted greatly from being one-half of the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon in 2023, and Odyssey is doing that while still being a sprawling three-hour and R-rated epic, is a testament to Nolan’s popularity. In a summer when traditional franchise films appear to be faltering, the box office is still growing and healthy because, in part, of audience excitement for ambitious filmmakers who can turn their name recognition into something of a brand. Odyssey’s “A” CinemaScore also suggests we might be headed toward another leggy run, similar to Oppenheimer dropping only 43.4 percent in its second weekend after receiving an “A” CinemaScore.
The implications of Odyssey’s success are tantalizing in a few ways. The first is of course being a welcome reminder that social media noise is often more a tempest in a teacup than the zeitgeist-defining battleground the culture warriors imagine. Plenty of social media malcontents have made a penny off manipulating YouTube, X, TikTok, and other algorithms by feeding negative content and amplifying racially-tinged toxicity over the casting of Black actors in Odyssey, as well as trans actor Elliot Page in the role of a Greek soldier, and yet for all the rage-filled engagement it generates on the internet, the online vitriol likely has no more to do with general audience attitudes than similar campaigns targeting flops in genres that audiences may have become exhausted by.
In other words, the only thing online echo chambers seething over Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o being cast as Helen of Troy achieved appears to be the further feeding of ad revenues for certain social media personalities.
Beyond the culture war nonsense, The Odyssey’s success is not surprising but it’s still illuminating. As we wrote last week, the box office has seen four or five disappointments from massively marketed franchise (or intended to be franchise) films. Several were new installments in storied brands with decades-long cinematic history, others were new live-action remakes in a franchise that saw its last installment gross more than $1 billion not even two years ago.
Despite these underperformances, the general sentiment around Hollywood, and definitely among theater owners, is that this has so far been a solid year at the movies. That’s because box office on the whole is up from this time last year, as is attendance. It just appears to be what audiences are more keen to see is shifting. There remains plenty of room for the big splashy blockbuster epic. But unlike Moana, Masters of the Universe, or Supergirl, the selling point of Odyssey isn’t the intellectual property (although the fact most audiences around the world should have heard of Homer’s 2,800-year-old epic at some point in their lives certainly helps); it’s that the audience trusts in the filmmaker and the way he and Universal Pictures were able to leverage that in the marketing campaign.
As with Ryan Coogler’s unapologetically film-nerdy marketing push to explain the appeal of IMAX 70mm projection last year during Sinners’ rollout, or Phil Lord and Chris Miller doing something similar for Project Hail Mary this spring, the fact Nolan is the first filmmaker in history to shoot an entire narrative film with 65mm IMAX cameras became one of The Odyssey’s biggest assets. Granted, Nolan was the original pioneer of using IMAX photography in Hollywood productions, beginning with The Dark Knight almost 20 years ago, but at that time it was more of a novelty adored by cinephiles and Nolan’s most ardent fans. Eighteen years later, it’s one of the biggest selling points, one that might matter more than shared universe interconnectivity.
The film’s success also suggests movie stars continue to be an added value, if not the greatest selling point, considering The Odyssey’s cast, like Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies, is absolutely stacked with familiar and recognizable faces. From the top of the call sheet performers like Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, and Tom Holland, all the way down to the supporting ensemble including Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, John Leguizamo, Mia Goth, and Robert Pattinson among its ranks, The Odyssey seemed to benefit from the kind of retro all-star cast trick that ironically was a mainstay of the type of 1950s sword and sandal epics Nolan seemed to be partially channeling here.
It is not a small irony that one of the biggest hits of the year is relying on larger format presentations and starry ensemble casts like the Hollywood of 70 years ago. But when coupled with the success this summer of original, young-skewing horror movies like Obsession and Backrooms, as well as the return of adult-leaning sci-fi movies like Hail Mary and even the middle-aged-skewing comedy of Devil Wears Prada 2, it does create a glimpse into the future of what might be working.
And when it comes to selling tickets, winning the online grifters and malcontents seems fairly irrelevant. Still.
‘The Odyssey’ Rules The World, But Stephen Chow’s ‘Kung Fu Soccer’ Scores $214M+ Cume, ‘Toy Story 5’ Nears $1B – Global Weekend Top 10 Box Office
Editorial Director/Box Office Editor
July 20, 2026 6:49pm
Yes, Universal’s Christopher Nolan epic The Odyssey led by an extreme margin at the global box office with an updated $263.7M, a hands down opening record for the 2x Oscar winning filmmaker fueled by his best ever start overseas with $140.2M from 73 territories and his third best opening in North America with $123.5M. For more of the foreign breakdown on The Odyssey, click here.
But here’s how everything else shook out with China elbowing its way into the chart with three, count ’em three blockbusters, despite Odysseus essentially No. 1 everywhere (except Vietnam and Argentina). He doesn’t show up in the Middle Kingdom until August 14. Why is China coming up so big at the B.O. suddenly? Because holidays are in full swing.
**Kung Fu Soccer**STAR OVERSEAS
Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Soccer per AG Reports was a definite No. 2 at the global B.O. with a second frame in China of $73.7M (501.1M Rmb) and a running cume of $214.3M (1,457M Rmb). Two other local titles triumphed over MPA ones there with the No. 2 pic in China being Pearl Studio’s Zhengxing Mu directed animation comedy fantasy All Wishes Come True with a 2-day weekend of $30.6M (207.8M Rmb) and running cume of $39.6M (269M Rmb) since opening on July 18. A solid result for this pic off its 9.7 Maoyan score. Pic’s blurb: Eight grassroot mortals use their street smarts and hilarious schemes to defy powerful gods, earning their title as the “Eight Immortals.” All Wishes come true was No. 6 at the global weekend B.O. Also big in China was the Yingxin Ma directed and written female drama, A** Part of Me**, from Enlight Pictures which began with $13.6M(92.4M Rmb) ranking third in the country, and No. 8 on the global weekend chart. What was the highest grossing Hollywood movie in China this weekend? Universal’s Minions and Monsters with a third weekend of $3.6M and running cume of $40.3M; still the pic’s biggest offshore territory both weekend and total wise.
Third belongs to Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 5 which at $957.3M is ever so close to becoming the third movie this year to pass $1 billion worldwide after Universal/Illumination’s Super Mario Galaxy and Lionsgate/Universal’s Michael ($1.01B). Broken out, Toy Story 5 has a running domestic total of $429.87M, which is now (for the moment), the highest grossing movie in North America YTD ahead of Super Mario Galaxy Movie ($429.81M). Toy Story 5 posted a global weekend of $43.7M ($13.76M domestic, $30M overseas from 52 markets). Foreign running cume stands at $527.5M. The pic was the No. 1 (non-local) film for the weekend in Japan (running total $41.2M) and Argentina (running cume $18.3M). Mexico is the top grossing territory still outside North America with $71.4M while UK/Ireland is second with $60.2M.
Disney’s live-action Moana posted a second global weekend of $42.9M ($17.9M domestic, $25M from 50 territories) in fourth place around the world for a running cume of $177.4M WW ($81M domestic, $96.4M int’l). The Dwayne Johnson starring movie was the No. 2 (non-local) in France ($10.2M best cume outside of states), Germany ($6.8M cume), Australia ($8.7M cume) and Korea ($5.6M cume) as well as Austria, Netherlands, Norway, Bahrain, Lebanon, Oman, Portugal, Qatar, Southern Africa, UAE, New Zealand, Philippines ($2.1M cume, ninth best territory outside U.S.), Thailand and Ecuador.
Overall Minions & Monsters posted a $42.1M third weekend around the world in fifth place ($13.6M domestic, $28.5M abroad from 80 markets) for a running global total of $358.4M ($136.3M domestic, $222M int’l). The pic added Korea but with a $2.6M opening at 1,043 screens and ranking second behind Hope(which you can read about more below). Still audiences reactions are very positive with the film receiving a strong 94% CGV Egg score, in line with DM4 (94%) and higher than Minions: The Rise of Gru (92%) and Minions (91%).
Unlike his encounters with whirlpools and sirens, Odysseus was wise not to park his boat in South Korea where Na Hong-Jin’s alien movie Hope ruled the majority of the weekend with a $16.4M opening plus previews, 7th for the global weekend. The movie which also stars real-life couple Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender as aliens, made its world premiere at Cannes. Neon has Hope stateside. It’s opening on Sept. 9 and it’s headed down to San Diego Comic-Con for a big panel.
Warner Bros/Studio Canal/Sony’s Evil Dead Burn saw a global weekend in 9th place of $12.8M ($4.7M domestic, $8.1M foreign from 62 territories) raising its global cume in weekend 2 to $51.4M ($23.8M domestic, $27.2M foreign).
Focus Features’ Obsession refuses to leave the top 10 with an $8.1M global weekend ($2.4M domestic, $5.76M int’l from 77 territories) and a running total of $442.1M ($258.3M domestic, $183.7M from both non-Uni and Uni markets). Nikki and Bear arrived in Japan where they seduced $256K at 131 screens, a result that’s above Weapons, Sinners and Get Out and ahead of the lifetimes of Nosferatu, Speak No Evil, The Black Phone 2 and The Monkey. They continue to sprechen sie Deutsch with a fourth weekend of $1.4M in Germany and near $11M running total, pic’s second highest grossing territory after UK/Ireland ($24.9M).
Penelope Cruz and Olivia Wilde in ‘The Invite’A24/COURTESY EVEREETT COLLECTION
Way down A24/FilmNation’s The Invite from Olivia Wilde counts a reported $12M running foreign cume from 33 territories and $26.4M around the globe in its fourth weekend. Rentrak figures the foreign weekend at $1.9M. Add in domestic’s $3.3M and the global weekend stands at $5.2M, now in the No. 11 spot. Australia counts $328K from 114 locations in weekend 2, -29% with a running total of $1.16M. New Zealand is $48K at 55 sites with a running cume just over $156K. Mexico has $281K from 457 cinema in weekend dos, -42% for a running cume of $1.2M. Brazil counts $340K at 165 in weekend 2, -18% for a running total of $1M. Netherlands has $289K from 130 prints with a running cume of $926K. UK and Ireland finished its third weekend with $322K from 464 theaters, a -45% hold against The Odyssey and World Cup with a running cume of $3.3M. Poland has $189K at 211 sites in weekend 3, -47%, for a $1.6M cume. Other territory total are Greece ($389K), Israel ($298K), Ukraine ($285K), India ($252K), and Hungary ($206k).
Elon Musk Will Use AI to Make “Historically Accurate” Version of The Odyssey
He also says he’ll self-fund an adaptation helmed by Mel Gibson
The Odyssey (Universal) / Elon Musk (Shutterstock)
July 22, 2026 | 8:31am ET
Elon Musk has graciously acknowledged that he was wrong about Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey after spending months criticizing the film as “woke,” only for it to become a critical and commercial smash.
Just kidding.
In the wake of The Odyssey’s blockbuster opening weekend, which even drew praise from some conservatives, Musk announced that he plans to use his AI chatbot Grok “to make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer.”
Musk made the declaration alongside a user-generated Odyssey video apparently created with Grok, which ironically contained several historical and visual errors of its own: Odysseus wears what appear to be earplugs at one point, is inexplicably covered in bronzer, and wanders past trees shaped like UFOs. The clip runs only three minutes, so we do not get a peek at Musk’s vision of a historically accurate Cyclops.
Musk promised his AI-generation version of The Odyssey would be ready “before the year ends,” but should it fail, he has also offered to put up $100 million for an old-school Hollywood adaptation directed by Mel Gibson, for some reason.
Historically accurate? Helen of Troy was the daughter of Zeus who was incognito as a swan. Maybe he was a black swan…