Nolan's 'The Odyssey' leads North American box office with $124.5 million opening

'The Odyssey' leads North American opening weekend

Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" debuted atop the North American box office with an estimated $124.5 million in domestic ticket sales, according to figures cited by the Indian Express on July 20. The result marks the director's strongest opening since "The Dark Knight Rises" in 2012 and ranks among the largest R-rated launches on record. Overseas, the Universal Pictures release added $139.6 million from 73 international markets across 25,600 screens, lifting its global opening weekend to $264.10 million. The opening weekend already exceeds the film's approximately $250 million production budget.

IMAX and premium formats drive the debut

IMAX screens generated $29.6 million in North America and $51.8 million globally, producing the company's best weekend ever, according to the Indian Express. Of the 41 IMAX screens worldwide equipped to project the film in 70 mm, those locations contributed $6.3 million of the global total. IMAX has committed its screens to "The Odyssey" for the next three weeks, despite the July 31 release of "Spider-Man: Brand New Day." Premium formats together powered much of the haul, with IMAX and PLFs generating a majority share of domestic business.

India records Nolan's biggest opening weekend

"The Odyssey" collected approximately Rs 73.19 crore gross (Rs 61.30 crore net) at the Indian box office across its opening weekend, the Indian Express reported, citing Sacnilk. The native English version led with Rs 48.50 crore, followed by Hindi dubbed (Rs 7.25 crore), Telugu (Rs 3.40 crore) and Tamil (Rs 2.15 crore). Chennai posted the highest Sunday occupancy for the English version at 53%, followed by Hyderabad (30%), Kochi (29%), Bengaluru (27%) and Pune (26%), according to Bollywood Life.

Production scale, reception and creative team

Universal spent approximately $125 million marketing the film, which the Indian Express notes is among the most expensive R-rated movies ever made. Audiences awarded the film an "A" CinemaScore, tying Nolan's strongest audience grade alongside "Oppenheimer," according to AOL. The picture holds a 95% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, per international wire reporting. "The Odyssey" adapts Homer's roughly 3,000-year-old epic poem and stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, with Tom Holland as Telemachus, Zendaya as Athena, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, Lupita Nyong'o as Helen, Charlize Theron as Calypso and Elliot Page among the ensemble, according to Indian Broadcasting World. Nolan co-produced the film with his wife Emma Thomas, and the picture is the first feature shot entirely with IMAX cameras.

Follow-up milestones

Universal is set to release final domestic figures on Monday, per WISH-TV's reporting. South Korea, China and Japan have yet to open the film, according to AOL, with strong early Asian results expected to build anticipation. The IMAX-exclusive window for "The Odyssey" runs through the July 31 launch of "Spider-Man: Brand New Day."