'The Odyssey' Crosses $350M Worldwide as It Closes Out Its First Week

Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" wrapped its first week of release with numbers that keep outpacing every internal comparison point Universal had for it. The film crossed $350 million worldwide, with its domestic total climbing to $199 million after another strong Thursday that added $17.5 million on its own.

A Week That Never Really Slowed Down

What's been most notable about this run isn't the opening weekend itself — a record-setting $264.1 million globally, the biggest worldwide debut of Nolan's career, ahead of The Dark Knight Rises' previous high of $249 million, according to The Numbers — but how little the film has cooled off since. Weekday numbers have stayed unusually strong for a three-hour, R-rated historical epic, with Thursday's $17.5 million domestic take standing out as a genuinely rare number for a film seven days into release.

Beating Its Own Benchmark

Universal's internal targets going in were reportedly in the $85-100 million range for a domestic opening weekend. The film blew past that on day one alone. It's also comfortably outpacing Nolan's own "Oppenheimer," which took in $230 million worldwide in its first week — a number "The Odyssey" cleared days ago on its way to $350 million, per Forbes.

IMAX Did Real Work Here

Premium formats carried a disproportionate share of the film's early gross. IMAX alone generated roughly $52 million worldwide in the first week — about 15% of the total — with $31 million of that coming from domestic screens, representing 17% of the entire US and Canada total from just a fraction of available screens. Several of the film's 70mm IMAX presentations, the format Nolan shot the entire movie in, reportedly sold out instantly upon going on sale, with some venues running rare early-morning screenings to meet demand.

Where This Leaves the Film

At a reported $250 million budget, "The Odyssey" is already well past the point of covering its production costs domestically alone, before accounting for marketing or international distribution splits. With critics still holding the film around 94% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes — down slightly from a near-perfect 98% at review embargo — and next weekend clear of any major new wide releases, the film looks set to keep climbing before Sony's "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" arrives July 31.