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‘The Odyssey’ is the biggest live-action film of the year so far
The film has become one of Christopher Nolan’s biggest openings ever
The Odyssey has made a huge splash at the box office in its opening weekend, becoming the biggest live-action film of the year so far.
Christopher Nolan’s latest film is based on Homer’s classic Greek epic, and features Matt Damon as Odysseus, the Greek king of Ithaca, the story focusing on his long voyage home after the Trojan War.
Following its release last week, studio Universal Pictures has confirmed that the film has already made $264million (£196million) at the global box office, making it the director’s best-ever opening outside of the Batman franchise.
It was even higher than his last film Oppenheimer, which opened to $180million (£133million) globally and went on to make nearly a billion at the end of its run.
In North America, The Odyssey has proved to be the third-biggest opening of the year behind Toy Story 5 and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, its $124.5million (£92million), giving it the largest live-action opening of 2026 so far.
That’s off a reported $250million (£185million) budget, and exceeds Universal’s projected $100million (£74million) opening in North America. According to the statistics, 56 per cent of the audience was made up of men, with three-quarters over 25 and half aged between 18 and 34.
Recommended
The Odyssey has further become Nolan’s best-reviewed film of his career, with a 95 per cent fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.
In NME’s five-star review, we said: “Less a case of them not making ‘em like they used to, watching the film leaves you with a sense that this sort of thing probably won’t be made at all for too much longer – the sheer scale, ambition and weight of it seeming to belong to a different world already. It’s hard to see how cinema can get much bigger than this.”
Alongside Damon, the film also features Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo, Elliot Page, Himesh Patel, Samantha Morton and Mia Goth.
Meanwhile, Nolan has said it will be “at least” three years before he releases his next film, telling Today: “I definitely hit the limits of my own stamina and everybody’s stamina, I think.
“I mean, it’s The Odyssey, of course it should be difficult. We’re not doing the job right making a film of The Odyssey if it doesn’t seem difficult.”
The director has also responded to the “irrelevant” backlash to some of the casting choices, as well as the use of modern English dialogue in the film.
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The Odyssey has made a huge splash at the box office in its opening weekend, becoming the biggest live-action film of the year so far.
Christopher Nolan’s latest film is based on Homer’s classic Greek epic, and features Matt Damon as Odysseus, the Greek king of Ithaca, the story focusing on his long voyage home after the Trojan War.
Following its release last week, studio Universal Pictures has confirmed that the film has already made $264million (£196million) at the global box office, making it the director’s best-ever opening outside of the Batman franchise.
It was even higher than his last film Oppenheimer, which opened to $180million (£133million) globally and went on to make nearly a billion at the end of its run.
In North America, The Odyssey has proved to be the third-biggest opening of the year behind Toy Story 5 and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, its $124.5million (£92million), giving it the largest live-action opening of 2026 so far.
That’s off a reported $250million (£185million) budget, and exceeds Universal’s projected $100million (£74million) opening in North America. According to the statistics, 56 per cent of the audience was made up of men, with three-quarters over 25 and half aged between 18 and 34.
Recommended
The Odyssey has further become Nolan’s best-reviewed film of his career, with a 95 per cent fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.
In NME’s five-star review, we said: “Less a case of them not making ‘em like they used to, watching the film leaves you with a sense that this sort of thing probably won’t be made at all for too much longer – the sheer scale, ambition and weight of it seeming to belong to a different world already. It’s hard to see how cinema can get much bigger than this.”
Alongside Damon, the film also features Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo, Elliot Page, Himesh Patel, Samantha Morton and Mia Goth.
Meanwhile, Nolan has said it will be “at least” three years before he releases his next film, telling Today: “I definitely hit the limits of my own stamina and everybody’s stamina, I think.
“I mean, it’s The Odyssey, of course it should be difficult. We’re not doing the job right making a film of The Odyssey if it doesn’t seem difficult.”
The director has also responded to the “irrelevant” backlash to some of the casting choices, as well as the use of modern English dialogue in the film.
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