Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway reveal behind-the-scenes footage of ‘The Odyssey’
Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway reveal the funniest behind-the-scenes stories from The Odyssey, from forgotten lines to Christopher Nolan’s style.
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Is Christopher Nolan the most reliable director today? With his latest film, the Oscar winner has accomplished something that few filmmakers can do.
Nolan’s The Odyssey, a nearly three-hour epic based on Homer’s classic poem, is officially a box office hit. According to studio estimates released by Rentrak on July 19, the film’s opening in North American theaters was a whopping $124.5 million.
This marks Nolan’s record for the highest domestic opening weekend gross for his non-sequel film, making it the biggest outside of the Dark Knight trilogy. This record was previously held by “Oppenheimer,” which was released in 2023 for $82.5 million domestically.
The Odyssey also grossed $264.1 million worldwide, making it the biggest opening weekend of Nolan’s career.
That “The Odyssey” grabbed a bigger debut than “Oppenheimer” is especially impressive considering that the latter film benefited from the “Babenheimer” phenomenon. Fans combined the double feature of Nolan’s J. Robert Oppenheimer biopic with Barbie, which is believed to have boosted the box office sales of both films.
No such pairing existed in The Odyssey, which featured a star-studded cast that included Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, and Anne Hathaway. But the most important star may have been Nolan himself. Nolan has become one of the few directors in recent years whose films can be sold on name alone. His last two films, Oppenheimer and The Odyssey, both had the kind of blockbuster openings often seen in franchise films.
In fact, “Odyssey” had a bigger weekend opening than “Star Wars,” “Minions,” and the latest installment of the DC Universe series. Its debut is the second-biggest of the summer movie season, behind “Toy Story 5,” and the third-biggest of the year, behind “Toy Story” and “Super Mario Galaxy Movie.” As for live-action movies, “Odyssey” became the biggest domestic premiere in 2026.
In an unusual move, tickets for some screenings of “The Odyssey” went on sale in July 2025, a full year before the film’s release, and quickly sold out. Tickets for IMAX 70mm screenings are especially popular, in part because The Odyssey made history as the first major studio film to be shot entirely using IMAX cameras.
“The Odyssey” is likely to be a big hit over the summer, as fans who couldn’t get IMAX tickets on its opening weekend will be able to see it in the weeks that follow.
And even after summer ends, the buzz surrounding this movie is sure to continue until 2027. Just three years after Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” dominated the 2024 Oscars, winning seven categories including Best Picture, “The Odyssey” is widely expected to be a mainstay at next year’s Academy Awards.
Comparing the opening of The Odyssey to other Christopher Nolan films
Adding “The Odyssey” to this list, let’s take a look at the opening weekends of all of Nolan’s previous films, with the exception of his early films “The Following” and “Memento,” which didn’t have wide theatrical releases, and “Tenet,” which was released when movie theaters were closed in much of the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to Box Office Mojo, this figure is not adjusted for inflation.
- The Dark Knight Rises (2012): $160.9 million
- “The Dark Knight” (2008): $158.4 million
- “Odyssey” (2026): $124.5 million
- “Oppenheimer” (2023): $82.5 million
- “Inception” (2010): $62.8 million
- “Dunkirk” (2017): $50.5 million
- “Batman Begins” (2005): $48.7 million
- “Interstellar” (2014): $47.5 million
- “Insomnia” (2002): $20.9 million
- “The Prestige” (2006): $14.8 million
