Posted on 08/04/2026 5:14:48 AM PDT by Red Badger
Hollywood pulled out all the stops for “The Odyssey” – They relied heavily on director Christopher Nolan’s built-in and generally pretentious audience to drive early box office revenues.
The hype machine was running non-stop for months before the release. The distributor’s focused heavily on IMAX ticket sales, which cost more than double a normal theater ticket. They attempted to hide the woke content of the film from the public for as long as possible (an ancient Greek epic with no Greeks, featuring black, Asian, Hispanic and trans actors with a story that deconstructs the hero’s journey of Odysseus, making him into a broken shell of a man. Historical inaccuracies and modernization are rampant in the movie.
Critical websites also froze the audience ratings above 95% by rejecting most negative reviews.
Despite all of this, The Odyssey’s early box office was not impressive compared to most blockbuster movies. It didn’t even break the top 60 movies for opening weekend revenues (adjusted for inflation). The political left rushed onto social media to declare victory, claiming that “Get Woke, Go Broke is over”.
Then, Spider Man: Brand New Day opened and ate The Odyssey’s lunch, showing how a real blockbuster is supposed to perform.
For its opening weekend, Spider Man raked in $927 million worldwide – Compare that to The Odyssey’s $264 million global box office for the first weekend. Spider Man crushed The Odyssey without trying. Spider Man is projected to make around $2.5 billion in the next few weeks while Nolan’s movie is struggling to hit $1 billion. If Nolan had made a non-woke movie, maybe he would have had better numbers.
The Odyssey’s theater take sounds like a success, despite being easily surpassed by Spider Man. However, with all the bluster over the film’s “woke triumph”, leftists are avoiding an inconvenient truth: The Odyssey has yet to make a single penny in raw profit.
Nolan’s woke translation has brought in $911 million after three weeks, but it needs around $950 million just to break even. This is accounting for marketing costs, theaters taking their 50% cut, and Nolan taking his own 20% cut of revenues as part of his contract. Will the Odyssey break even? Probably, but Universal Studios will be straining to make any meaningful profit from the production.
Nolan will be laughing all the way to the bank, but distributors will not be as fortunate. Spider Man has already surpassed the break even point and made a profit.
In the end, The Odyssey will represent nothing more than a woke vanity project for a director who is fading in talent. Nolan says he may be taking several years away from the business after Odyssey, which means Hollywood expended all its ammunition on one last stand.
The Hollywood model has long been to force progressive content on audiences while ignoring public pleas for less propaganda. In the minds of the elites, the masses must be conditioned over time to accept wokeness. They believe that if they saturate the market for long enough, movie-goers will eventually capitulate and accept woke as the new normal. This has not happened.
Instead, nearly every woke movie and streaming series has failed, losing the industry billions in cumulative production costs. Studios have been forced in the past couple of years to return to less political messaging and more classic entertainment.
The Odyssey is a defiant rebellion, specifically designed as a vehicle to revitalize the Hollywood argument in favor of woke content. Yet, compared to non-woke movies, the profit margin is looking dismal.
The political left never learns, they only double down on failure and convince themselves that their own propaganda is reality. Even if one considers The Odyssey a “success” for making it’s money back, how many woke movies can Christopher Nolan possibly direct? One every few years? No other director has a similar simp audience to lean on.
Meaning, The Odyssey is likely the last gasp, the death rattle of far-left content gaining any momentum in theaters for years to come. One woke movie breaking even does not make up for hundreds of box office disasters.
Tom Holland is just the next generation version of Will Wheaton! There is one every couple of decades just to keep people wincing, i suppose!
Marketing for a major film like this is probably in the $200 million range.
Movie theaters get in the range of 40%-50% of the Box Office for a major film.
I had no idea director Christopher Nolan got 20% of the Box Office!
After 17 days, "The Odyssey" took in $912 million.
It will need $1.5 billion in Box Office just to break even!
“Any basis for this thought? [But I think his goal was “Awards]
Yes, stanne, but people who think Nolan craps rose petals would never listen and I don’t care enough to type out 10 paragraphs. He sure as hell didn’t make it the way he did because he valued “accuracy”!
“Any basis for this thought? [But I think his goal was “Awards]
Yes, stanne, but people who think Nolan craps rose petals would never listen and I don’t care enough to type out 10 paragraphs. He sure as hell didn’t make it the way he did because he valued “accuracy”!
You’re argument is emotional appeal with no facts
No sale
I didn’t try to sell it to you. Your noggin is so deeply embedded in Nolan’s rear that you cannot perceive objective reality.
You’re foul language does not help to convince that your argument is all emotion no facts
I did not use foul language, merely colorful. And I do not care what you think because you seem to worship Nolan and I see no chance you will EVER be objective about him or his movies.
I think MOST people can see the obvious for themselves and agree or at least admit the possibility that my analysis is correct. There is no way Nolan was trying for accuracy or honesty. If he made an “Odyssey-INSPIRED” movie, most of us would be silent.
I have also, on this thread, pointed out my belief that a truly accurate version would shock modern audiences:
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” Crushes Woke Odyssey Film at Box Office
8/4/2026, 6:07:19 AM · 21 of 106
Mr Rogers to Red Badger
“If Nolan had made a non-woke movie, maybe he would have had better numbers.”
If he had made a non-woke film, Hollywood and the critics would have slammed it and most people would have ignored it because it’s boring AND hard for modern audiences to take.
At the end of the book, he kills the people trying to take his property and wife, including some who begged him on their knees to let them live a little longer. Not sure that would sell to a modern audience...
And his numbers are NOT bad. He’s made a profit. He’ll get awards. He’s happy. Just like Barbie, a bad woke movie can still draw audiences. Sometimes.
“Spider Man: Brand New Day” has an MIT connection!
AI Overview Yes, the MIT connection in Spider-Man: Brand New Day involves characters MJ and Ned attending the university, with plot points and scenes featuring their time or final semester there following the events of No Way Home.
“it was a Nolan film, he has a near cult following”
NO!, it is a cult following including many Freeper members.
This Christopher Nolan’s biggest box office success, yet somehow it’s a woke failure.
It’s sad to see people so desperate to validate their world views as to utterly misrepresent objective reality.
What drop off?
Dropped only 27%–30% in its second week, grossing roughly $87 million domestically. Average movie release drop-off is 40-50% after an opening weekend.
Sorry, Charlie. Breakeven was $650 million.
It’s already almost half a billion in the black.
I didn't have any problem with the casting in Spiderman but my issue with the actress is that she reminded me of Kristen Stewart.
She has zero range.
That is actually funny. Very funny.
The irony of your post, Skwor, is that a 27% drop isn’t just “not a failure”. In reality, it’s a record-breaking success.
For a massive blockbuster, a second-weekend drop that small is practically unheard of, and following it up with just a 43% drop against the opening of Spider-Man Brand New Day shows insane staying power.
I can understand why many of us might not have wanted the movie to succeed. But trying to frame one of the most impressive box-office holds in history as a negative shows a fundamental lack of understanding. It’s exactly like the moving goalposts we are seeing on its break-even number: it started at a realistic $625M, magically went to $900M, then $1.1B, and some YouTubers even claimed $1.3B before quietly retracting it. I would not be surprised if someone said it needs $2b to break even. ;^)
It is perfectly fine to want a movie to fail. On my end, I was very happy when Snow White bombed, when The Marvels flopped, and when Madamme Web cratered.
However, that doesn’t mean people get to wishcast, invent their own numbers, or (not you, but some of the YouTubers) outright lie. It’s bad when Liberals do it, and it is equally bad when Conservatives do it.
We are OFTEN correct, but we aren’t ALWAYS correct. This is one of those cases, as the Odyssey is a box office success (and saying ‘but Spiderman did better’ is like calling Jeff Bezos ‘poor’ because Elon Musk is wealthier. It just comes across as biased and funny).
Hollywood will make other movies that will fail. Some will massively fail.
Just not the Odyssey. It will do well (very well), has already done well without adding China numbers (it premiers in China this Friday and in Japan in September), and will likely win an Oscar or three. Nolan has obviously done well for himself, and it is likely he will do the Iliad at some point, and the Iliad will also do well. Nolan has great ability in putting butts in seats.
The Odyssey is successful. We will have to wait for Hollywood to make a BatGirl or SpiderWoman or She-Ra flick, which they eventually will, and that will flop. But not the Odyssey.
Ease up on the copium. You got it bad believing your own propaganda. That drop is horrible given the fan base was used up prior to even seeing the movie. It shows non-Nolan fans were not into the movie.
Odyssy had an all-time record presale which are not counted as opening week sales. Learn what the actual numbers mean. Nolan used up his credibility on this film and made his fans a bunch of suckers.
I am the one trying to cope? You’re sure it’s not you?
My ‘own propaganda’ or is it you who is unhappy with FACTS just because they don’t support what you WANT to believe.
The Odyssey holds the lowest second-weekend percentage drop for any film that opened to over $100 million in North America. The list is as follows:
1. The Odyssey with a -27% drop.
2. Wicked with a -27.9% drop.
3. Top Gun: Maverick with a -28.9% drop.
4. Shrek 2 with a 33.2% drop.
5. Frozen II with a 34% drop.
So, if the Odyssey’s drop was ‘horrible,’ then the performance of every single movie that has opened to more than $100m is even worse. :) Dropping 50% or more is the norm. The Odyssey basically walked on water.
Listen, it’s a woke movie from Hollywood. Like you, I am typically happy with their slop fails. Unlike you, I don’t put my fingers in my ears, shut my eyes, and pretend what is isn’t just because I don’t like it. Liberals do that. We shouldn’t.
Oh, and the film is opening this Friday to over 800 screens in China; and is opening in Japan on 9/11. Unfortunately for those who needed (not wanted like me, needed like you) the film to flop, it is likely to add a couple extra hundred million to its take.
Just for you though:
‘You’re correct, Skwor. The movie is an utter disaster. It is a YUGE financial flop, its break even is $7.5 billion, the seats are all empty (in fact, I heard on radio that the studio too YUGE loans and bought up all the seats and spent over a billion dollars to create an illusion), and Universal Pictures and Christoper Nolan have lost all their money. It’s true I tell ya.’
/sarc.
My son mentioned he went to see the Odyssey.
That was it. He never said it was great. You have to see it.
It must have been rather boring or something.
3 hours...Probably fell asleep.............
Given that Nolan was paid $20 million up front, plus 10% (20% of the studio 50%) of the gross box office revenue, I expect his disappointment to be well tempered.
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