Universal’s “The Odyssey” has become the highest grossing movie in Imax history, passing the lifetime $256 million gross of James Cameron’s “Avatar” with releases in China and Japan still to come.
In its fourth weekend, “The Odyssey” added an impressive $52 million from Imax screenings as the premium format accounted for nearly half of the $110 million that Christopher Nolan’s film added to its global cume this weekend. This is in spite of the fact that the movie is now sharing Imax screens with the Marvel smash hit “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” which has grossed $42.4 million on Imax while blasting off to $1.67 billion worldwide after two weekends in theaters.
In total “The Odyssey” has grossed $289 million from Imax screens with an overall global total of $1.1 billion and counting. Of that $289 million, $37.5 million, or 13%, has come from the 41 global locations showing the film in Imax 70mm, with many of those locations selling out screenings through September. In the United States, the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood has been the biggest contributor with $2.8 million grossed from that theater alone.
“On behalf of IMAX, I want to extend our congratulations and deepest gratitude to Chris, Emma, the entire team behind ‘The Odysse’y and our friends at Universal on this monumental achievement — shattering our longstanding box office record with at least a month left to run on IMAX screens worldwide,” said Rich Gelfond, CEO of IMAX. “We had the very highest of hopes for The Odyssey from the start, but it somehow continues to exceed them, and its historic performance is headlining what we expect will be our best year ever at the global box office.”
“The Odyssey” will set a high bar for any future film, including those from Nolan. Next weekend, the movie will make its debut in China with full Imax support after an extensive promotional tour by Nolan and the film’s cast, including Matt Damon and Tom Holland.
While only a precious few Hollywood films have made significant grosses since the COVID-19 pandemic in that country, Universal is banking that the film’s status as a global cinematic event based on one of the earliest and most well-known stories in human history will make “The Odyssey” as hot a ticket in China as in the rest of the world.