Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" has become the highest-grossing film of the director's three-decade career, crossing $1.1 billion in worldwide ticket sales after just four weekends in theaters, according to studio figures reported by Deadline and other trade outlets over the weekend.
The Universal release, an IMAX-shot adaptation of Homer's epic poem starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, took just three weeks to reach the billion-dollar mark after opening July 17, then added well over $100 million more in its fourth weekend to pull ahead of "The Dark Knight Rises," Nolan's 2012 Batman finale, which had stood as his top earner at $1.08 billion for fourteen years.
As of the latest studio tallies reported by Variety, "The Odyssey" has taken in roughly $461 million domestically and more than $640 million overseas. It is the fifth film of 2026 to cross $1 billion worldwide, and only the third movie in Nolan's filmography to do so, joining "The Dark Knight" (2008) and "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012), both built around Batman. "The Odyssey" is Nolan's first original, non-superhero picture ever to reach the milestone.
A $250 Million Bet on Homer
Produced on a reported $250 million budget by Nolan and his longtime producing partner and wife, Emma Thomas, "The Odyssey" was shot entirely on a 70mm IMAX film camera system, continuing the format-forward approach Nolan has favored since "Interstellar." The film reimagines Odysseus's ten-year journey home from the Trojan War, with Anne Hathaway as his wife, Penelope; Tom Holland as his son, Telemachus; and Zendaya and Lupita Nyong'o in supporting mythological roles.
Premium-format screens have driven an outsized share of the gross: IMAX alone had generated more than $257 million by the time the film crossed $1 billion, according to distributor figures cited by TheWrap. The film also posted one of the steadiest holds of any wide release this year, with trade reports describing its second-weekend decline as the smallest ever for a movie that opened above $100 million domestically.
Universal's president of domestic theatrical distribution, Jim Orr, credited Nolan's track record with drawing audiences back into theaters for repeat viewings.
Christopher Nolan has earned audiences' trust by consistently delivering must-see theatrical events, and The Odyssey is him operating at the peak of his powers.
Jim Orr, Universal Pictures president of domestic theatrical distribution
Ahead of a China Release and Awards Season
The box office run is not over. "The Odyssey" is still expanding into new territories, including a mid-August China release across roughly 800 IMAX screens that distributors expect to push the global total meaningfully higher. Universal has also positioned the film as a strong contender heading into the fall awards calendar, hoping a literary epic can replicate what "Oppenheimer" did for Nolan in 2023, when it won seven Academy Awards including best picture and best director.
For Universal, the milestone caps a strong summer in which the studio has crossed $4 billion in worldwide grosses for 2026 faster than any rival, with "The Odyssey" as its centerpiece. Nolan has rarely commented directly on box office figures, but the film's commercial performance all but guarantees it will be discussed alongside "Oppenheimer" as the defining achievement of his career so far.
The result also arrives at a moment when big-budget original filmmaking has been treated as an endangered proposition in Hollywood, squeezed between franchise sequels and streaming-first releases. "The Odyssey" was neither: a nearly three-hour literary adaptation with no built-in fan base beyond Homer's, sold almost entirely on Nolan's name, its IMAX photography and a starry ensemble cast rather than an existing franchise. Its performance is likely to be cited for years by studios weighing whether to greenlight similarly ambitious, filmmaker-driven epics at nine-figure budgets.
Reviews for "The Odyssey" have been the strongest of Nolan's career, holding a 98 percent critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes since its July premiere. Critics have pointed to the film's ensemble performances and to Nolan's decision to shoot across Morocco, Greece, Italy, Iceland and Scotland over a 91-day production. That reception, paired with the box office run, has strengthened its position as one of the season's most talked-about films heading into the fall festival and awards circuit.
