Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is now tracking to open with more than $200 million worldwide, a start led by a domestic launch of $85 million to $100 million and about $110 million overseas. Universal’s film is set to open in the U.S. on Thursday with 2 p.m. previews, and the advance business is already being described as very robust.
That momentum matters because The Odyssey is not just another studio release. It is a three-hour, R-rated film built as an Imax event, with Matt Damon, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Jon Bernthal and Lupita Nyong’o in the cast, and the rollout is broad enough to put it on 22,700 screens across 73 overseas territories. Tom Holland joined Nolan and Damon on a stop in Mumbai, while the film also had a London world premiere and a stop in Paris, adding to the sense that this is a global opening rather than a single-market debut.
The comparison hanging over the launch is Oppenheimer, Nolan’s last film for Universal, which opened to $98.7 million offshore and $181.1 million globally. Here, the overseas frame is expected to come from markets including Italy and Greece on day-and-date, while Korea, Japan and China open later, a staggered plan that suggests the studio is trying to keep the film in the conversation beyond the first weekend. The UK remains one of Nolan’s strongest markets, and the franchise-like pull of his name is doing a lot of the work before the first ticket is even scanned.
But the early sales picture is not as simple as the headline number. Advance ticket sales are being pegged at around $30 million to $40 million, and some of that business may be for Monday and Tuesday rather than opening weekend, which means the $200 million-plus global start still has some moving parts inside it. A three-hour runtime and an R rating can slow some walk-up demand, even as they can also turn the film into a must-see event for the audience that already bought in.
The next test arrives quickly. The NYC U.S. premiere is tonight, the review embargo lifts Wednesday morning and the film reaches theaters Thursday, giving Nolan, Universal and the cast one short window to turn advance enthusiasm into the kind of weekend that matches the scale of the rollout.
