Box Office: ‘The Odyssey’ Has Epic Opening Day With $51 Million

Variety ^ | 18th July 2026 | Jack Dunn

[Cronos]

“The Odyssey” didn’t need a Trojan Horse to break into the top of Friday’s box office charts.

Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” earned $51 million on Friday from 3,919 North American screens. Early estimates had the saga grossing $90 million to $100 million by Sunday, but after a stellar opening day, forecasts have the film climbing as high as $120 million. “The Odyssey” will soon become the third film in 2026 to open above $100 million after “Toy Story 5” ($159 million) and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” ($131 million). “The Odyssey” carries a hefty $250 million price tag.

An $120 million opening for “The Odyssey” would rank as Nolan’s best since “The Dark Knight Rises,” which debuted to a staggering $160 million in 2012. Weekend one projections for “The Odyssey” blow past Nolan’s 2023 best picture winner, “Oppenheimer,” which made $82 million over its opening weekend and powered to $975 million by the end of its run. Also, with $51 million on Friday, “The Odyssey” has already outgrossed the entire opening weekend of Nolan’s 2014 opus “Interstellar” ($47.5 million).

[volare737]

Perfect….yes she does,,,,,,LOL.

[montag813]

I saw an illegal recording of good quality last night. It's visually amazing, but incredibly depressing to Western audiences - which of course was the objective.

We are being "demoralized" on purpose, as Yuri Besmenov warned decades ago - to then destroyed and then replaced.

[bk1000]

I’m not paying a dime to watch some tranny pretending to be Ulises and a black girl pretending to be Helen of Troy. I cannot stretch my imagination that much, much less to pay for the experience. Won’t watch if for free when it’s available

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

There are plenty of woke movies leftist reviewers and the media have tried unsuccessfully to save. So if this one is doing that well...I assume it's pretty decent. That's leaving aside the two woke casting choices.

Matt Damon is a very popular leading man - he was great in The Martian, and in the born identity movies. Accent aside, he's probably a pretty good Odysseus. Nolan is a good action director - the Dark Knight Rises was a great flick that actually made the NYPD into heroes fighting leftist anarchist scum. And the source material obviously is great.

But those two casting decisions just bug me on a level I can't get past. I feel like paying to see it would be supporting that crap financially, and I just can't do that. Maybe when it is free, although probably not even then.

[Cronos]

I want to see Penelope and Calypso

I am interested if Nolan actually depicts the killing of the servant girls and the execution of Melanthius

as per the epic, fter the suitors and the unfaithful maidservants are executed, Telemachus and the loyal herdsmen drag Melanthius into the inner courtyard for his final punishment where first they use curved bronze blades to slice off his nose and ears. Then they rip away his genitals (referred to in translations as his "private parts" or "vitals") and toss them into the yard for the palace dogs to eat raw. Then they chop off his hands and feet. I think melanthus lives through this and surv7ves for some time later

[wardaddy]

This media onslaught that the movie is killing it is organized
You do know media is often paid by private entities and NGOs

[MinorityRepublican]

Hollywood is out to prove woke can make money. The execs have admitted this and they have gone full out. They will not get a dime from me.

Yet we have FReepers defending woke in this thread...

[wardaddy]

Yes it’s says Botswarms work

[gibsonguy]

Excellent post. Thank you. It is possible that the movie will do well if enough manufactured buzz can create momentum. Hollywood has pulled out all of the stops to make it happen.

[1ScrappyArmyMom]

How is it the Odyssey when it it’s woke female bull crap?
It flat out ignores what happened to make the women be great.
Have you read the story?

[Cronos]

Ellen Page plays Sinon, not Achilles, leave alone Ulysses.

Her screen time is a few minutes.

The same with Lupita nyong’o, a screen time if a few minutes.

Have you read the Odyssey? Sinon isn’t in it, and Helen is there for a tiny fragment.

The focus is Ulysses, PeneLope, Telemachus and Athena

[wardaddy]

Precisely
Like clockwork
Not genuine

I’m dismayed how many posters are ok with the appropriation of white history or literature

Some don’t surprise me given their posting history

[Angelino97]

I'm surprised.

Not surprising at all. Young people have always flocked to theaters. And their tastes always puzzled older generations. (Which would include most Freepers.)

Today's youth are more diverse and more woke. This is true despite Conservative Inc.'s happy talk of "Gen Z is conservative!"

No, it's not. I wish it was, but no.

[Cronos]

I’ve not seen the left be able to save any other woke films, not at the box office, nit at audience reviews scores on rotten tomatoes

[dfwgator]

It would have no chance to win an Oscar if he didn’t put them in the movie.

In Hollywood, to get along, you go along.

[wardaddy]

Several of those you mention have ALWAYS been thin on culture

I don’t know them personally and can only assume they see racism and slavery as the original sins of the white race while ignoring the same issues in all races

I think they see this silliness meant to degrade western civilization as justified or a non issue

[MinorityRepublican]

Today's youth are more diverse and more woke.

Correct.

But usually woke = crap. So they're not watching woke movies.

The Marvels (2023)

Snow White (2025)

Strange World (2022)

Lightyear (2022)

Borderlands (2024)

[discostu]

Well it isn’t full of woke female bull crap. Those are lies told to you by people who didn’t see the movie. It doesn’t flat out ignore what happened to make the women great. It actually digs into them a little deeper (not much) than the poem.

[wardaddy]

Reading Homer in prose is hard

Maybe not Faulkner hard but still hard lol

We studied it some in high school in the early 70s and extensively in college

My favorite character is the poor dog

I hope they used a black dog

Dadadadadumpdumpdimpdumpdadads

[meyer]

it’s woke garbage. I wouldn’t spend a penny to see it, and in fact, they’d have to pay me $150 an hour to attend plus travel and meals.