The Odyssey Breaks Major Christopher Nolan Box Office Record, But Can It Catch Deadpool?

A couple of weeks before Spider-Man: Brand New Day started crushing box office records on a seemingly daily basis, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey made plenty of history of its own at the multiplex. Bolstered by enthusiastic reviews hailing the fantasy epic as one of Nolan’s best works, audiences flocked in droves to the theater, making a point to catch The Odyssey in premium formats. Even as Brand New Day dwarfed all of its competition, The Odyssey held its own and continued to be a sizable draw. Earlier this week, it became Nolan’s first film since The Dark Knight Rises to gross $1 billion worldwide, and now it’s broken another impressive record.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Odyssey is now officially the highest-grossing film of Nolan’s storied career. As of this writing, it has a global total of $1.104 billion. Previously, The Dark Knight Rises was Nolan’s top earner with $1.085 billion. The Odyssey is only the third R-rated movie in history to make $1 billion or more, and has now passed Joker for second place on that list. Only a certain Merc with a Mouth stands in Odysseus’ way for the No. 1 position:

Will The Odyssey Break Deadpool & Wolverine‘s Box Office Record?

Right now, there’s a difference of approximately $234 million between Deadpool & Wolverine and The Odyssey. Even as business for The Odyssey slows down a tad amidst the mad rush to see Spider-Man, that seems like a feasible gap to overcome. The film hasn’t even been in theaters for a full month yet and is already past $1.1 billion globally. Notably, IMAX has extended The Odyssey‘s run of 70mm screenings through mid-September. Premium formats, like IMAX, have been a massive driving force behind The Odyssey‘s box office performance thus far. It’s the first time ever a feature film was shot entirely with IMAX cameras, and viewers want to take in the full extent of that massive scale and scope.

After a lucrative July that saw The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day give theaters a much-needed shot in the arm (not to mention, holdover business from Toy Story 5), August should be a bit softer in terms of new releases. There are some potentially intriguing titles coming out over the next few weeks, including original sci-fi film The End of Oak Street and Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic drama The Dog Stars, but there isn’t anything on the scale of a four-quadrant blockbuster this month.

This means that outside of Spider-Man, The Odyssey doesn’t have much competition it’ll need to worry about. It would take quite a drastic drop-off for the fantasy epic to fall short of an additional $234 million globally for the rest of its run — especially since there continues to be high interest in the IMAX screenings. One also has to consider the possibility of a theatrical re-release during awards season as Universal mounts an Oscar campaign for the film. The margin between Deadpool & Wolverine and The Odyssey is so close that a re-release would probably push it over the edge, but it’s reasonable to assume it will break the record during its original run. The Odyssey‘s legs are still strong and we’re at the end of another summer movie season.

This would be a very impressive accomplishment for The Odyssey. Deadpool & Wolverine and Joker are comic book adaptations based on some of the most popular characters of all time; the former was a crowd-pleasing action comedy fueled by nostalgia for Fox’s superhero movies. The Odyssey is based on one of the foundational stories in all of fiction, but prior to this year, most people probably wouldn’t consider it in the same league as Marvel from a box office standpoint. Medieval fantasy films have struggled commercially recently, but Nolan is in a league of his own. Audiences make a point to see his latest release, regardless of the subject matter.