UPDATE: The hold delivered. The Odyssey posted a $90 million second weekend, the best of Christopher Nolan’s career, topping The Dark Knight and tying Top Gun: Maverick for the 12th-best sophomore frame in history, as the domestic total hits $289.3 million.
The number keeps climbing. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey finished its opening weekend at $124.5 million domestic, per Deadline’s Sunday morning update, up from Saturday’s $120.5 million estimate and Friday’s $117 million projection.
The Saturday hold tells the story. The film dipped just 17% from Friday with $41.66 million, the kind of hold that signals word of mouth kicking in behind the ‘A’ CinemaScore and 96% audience score.
Nolan’s Biggest Worldwide Opening
Global stands at $264.1 million, the biggest worldwide debut of Nolan’s career, ahead of The Dark Knight Rises at $249 million.
The international side delivered $139.6 million across 73 markets, 12,700 locations, and 25,600 screens, his biggest foreign launch ever. It’s Nolan’s biggest opening of all time in 48 markets, including France, Italy, India, Spain, and Brazil, and Universal’s biggest ever in 11.
Fourth-Biggest R-Rated Opening Ever
The final domestic number moved The Odyssey up a slot: it’s now the fourth-biggest R-rated opening in history, passing It: Chapter One and trailing only three Deadpool movies, Deadpool & Wolverine at $211.4 million, Deadpool at $132.4 million, and Deadpool 2 at $125.5 million.
The rest of the records held: best live-action debut of 2026, the biggest opening of Matt Damon’s career as a lead, Universal’s biggest R-rated launch, and the third-best domestic start of Nolan’s career.
More Tickets Than Oppenheimer
Per EntTelligence, 7.5 million people saw The Odyssey in North America this weekend, well ahead of Oppenheimer‘s 5.9 million, and they paid premium prices to do it, with 70mm tickets averaging $22.46.
Enhanced formats drove 53% of the opening, and Imax’s roughly 24% share is its third-highest ever, behind only Nolan’s own Interstellar and Oppenheimer. AMC Lincoln Square in New York overtook the TCL Chinese as the film’s top venue at $394,000.
Deadline also notes that per PostTrak, 43% of the audience were infrequent moviegoers, and that months of anti-woke noise on social media, per RelishMix, didn’t slow ticket sales one iota. The backlash we tracked from the most disliked trailer of Nolan’s career never made it to the ticket line.
Universal’s domestic distribution chief called the audience response “beyond stellar.”
The Market Is Back
The weekend hit $193.5 million across all titles, up 41% from a year ago, pushing 2026 to $5.4 billion, the best year-to-date total since before Covid.
Moana held second at $19 million, with Toy Story 5 and Minions & Monsters at $14.8 million apiece. Down at No. 9, Supergirl dropped another 59% to $1.5 million, crawling to $69.9 million in its fourth weekend.
The Odyssey heads into the week with Imax and 70mm shows sold out for days, including 7:45 a.m. showtimes. Actuals arrive Monday.
For full coverage, see our complete Odyssey guide.
