After helping drive the summer box office to new heights, Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” has taken its place as Universal’s highest grossing film of all time before inflation adjustment, passing the $1.67 billion global record set in 2015 by “Jurassic World” in its ninth weekend in theaters.
The studio record joins a slew of other box office records that “The Odyssey” has set, including a career best for Nolan surpassing even the inflation-adjusted total of “The Dark Knight Rises,” the all-time R-rated box office record, and the highest grossing film ever for Imax. It is Nolan’s third $1 billion-plus hit, coming 18 years after his first one, “The Dark Knight” became the first superhero film to cross that milestone.
“The Odyssey” also stands as the first film that is not a sequel or remake since “Avatar” in early 2010 to gross more than $1 billion outside of the U.S. and Canada, proving how Nolan has become the most globally popular filmmaker working today.
“What Chris and Emma [Thomas] have created will go down as one of the most ambitious and brilliantly executed films in cinematic history. A generational event that galvanizes moviegoing itself,” said Donna Langley, Chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment.
“The Odyssey” continues the fruitful relationship between Nolan and Universal that began five years ago when the filmmaker ended his decade-plus tenure at Warner Bros. and signed on with the Comcast studio to produce his 3-hour biopic “Oppenheimer.” At the time, studio sources told TheWrap that they would have seen a $550 million-plus global run for the film about the creation of the atomic bomb as a theatrical success.
Instead, “Oppenheimer” grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide in 2023, becoming the highest grossing film to win the Best Picture Oscar since “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” in 2003. Shortly afterwards, Nolan and Universal announced “The Odyssey,” a film that would be the first ever to be shot entirely with Imax cameras.
Combined with Sony/Marvel’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” “The Odyssey” would define the second half of the summer box office, as it become the second highest grossing movie of the summer and will cross $600 million domestic this weekend. It is one of only 18 films to have crossed that milestone before inflation adjustment.
