Oscar-winning director Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is overperforming big time with a $120 million opening weekend.
Projections had ranged in the $80 million to $90 million range. Some thought the casting controversies might further dampen things. They didn’t.
That opening, which is the best for a non-animated movie this year, would be impressive enough for a usual-usual movie. The Odyssey is far from usual-usual. It’s an R-rated movie with a three-hour runtime.
Critics love it. What portends continued box office success, though, is the audience reaction, which has so far been everything a filmmaker could hope for. An A-grade from Cinemascore and a 97 percent positive audience score at Rotten Tomatoes.
Prior to The Odyssey, the biggest live-action opening this year was the Michael Jackson biopic Michael ($97 million), which has already grossed $1 billion globally. The Odyssey is expected to do well overseas.
Like Steven Spielberg 30 years ago and Alfred Hitchcock before him, Nolan has become his own franchise, a trusted brand, a guy everyday people trust to deliver the goods, which he has done consistently with original blockbusters, with the exception of the pretty dreadful Tenet (2020).
The controversy over his use of presentism in his Odyssey casting choices struck me as overblown. I’ve not seen the movie and am withholding judgment until I do, but this is the same Christopher Nolan who gave us The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), both of which were viewed, including by me, as right-leaning movies. At the same time, Nolan’s Best Picture winner Oppenheimer (2023) was seen as more left-leaning. Ah, but then Matt Damon’s Dr. Mann character in Interstellar (2014) was seen, and not without merit, as a subtle jab at climate alarmist Michael Mann.
My point is that you can’t nail Nolan down; he’s a legitimate artist, so let’s see what he does first.
What will be funny is watching less talented filmmakers think the lesson from Nolan’s Odyssey success is that it is now okay to DEI the hell out of their movies, only to discover they produced a flop because they are not Christopher Nolan.
The Odyssey also has plenty of runway to continue packing them in — two full weeks of no new blockbuster competition until Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrives on July 31. Both movies could be looking at over $1 billion in eventual box office receipts.