Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ is continuing to dominate theatres, pulling in an estimated $17.5 million on Monday, July 20, according to Deadline. If the number holds, it will mark the best Monday performance of any film in the US and Canada so far in 2026
With Monday’s number added in, The Odyssey’s running total over its first four days stands at around $141 million domestically. That’s roughly 48 percent higher than Oppenheimer’s Friday-to-Monday total in 2023, which went on to close its North American run at $330 million.
Monday’s haul puts The Odyssey just behind two of Nolan’s biggest films. It trails ‘The Dark Knight’, which earned $24.4 million on its first Monday back in 2008, and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, which brought in $19.3 million on its first Monday in 2012. For comparison, Oppenheimer earned $12.67 million on its first Monday, making The Odyssey’s current number a clear step up from Nolan’s last release. Across his career, Nolan’s films, including “Oppenheimer, Tenet, Dunkirk, Interstellar, Inception, and The Dark Knight” trilogy, have collectively earned more than $6 billion at the global box office and won 18 Oscars from 49 nominations, underlining just how big a deal each new release from the director has become.
‘The Odyssey’ opened to $123.5 million domestically over its first three days, the best live-action opening weekend of the year in North America. Combined with $140.2 million from international markets, its opening weekend haul reached $263.7 million worldwide, marking the biggest global debut of Nolan’s career, ahead of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’s’ $249 million opening in 2012. These final numbers came in slightly different from the estimates first reported over the weekend, though the records they set remain unchanged. The film also opened with an A CinemaScore and delivered the best-ever opening for lead actor Matt Damon, who stars as Odysseus in an ensemble that also includes Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Anne Hathaway.
The Odyssey also marks a first for Nolan in one notable way: it’s his first R-rated release, and it’s already the fourth-best R-rated opening weekend of all time domestically, trailing only “Deadpool & Wolverine, Deadpool, and Deadpool 2”. Despite some early social media backlash around the film’s marketing, box office analysts have noted that its success doesn’t appear to be driven by any one particular audience group, suggesting broad appeal across different types of moviegoers.
The Odyssey posted Universal’s biggest opening ever in 11 international markets, and ranks as the second biggest R-rated opening of all time internationally, behind only ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’. It also delivered Nolan’s biggest Thursday ever in Mexico, and opened at number one in Germany with more than half the total box office market share that day. With this kind of global haul in just its first few days, The Odyssey has already surpassed the entire theatrical runs of several other major 2026 releases.
The Odyssey’s dominance has also overshadowed other new releases in the same frame. Disney’s live-action Moana remake, this weekend’s next-best performer, added just $19 million on its own Monday, bringing its domestic total to $82.1 million, a modest number by comparison and still far from recovering its production budget.
The Odyssey’s momentum is also showing up on the ground, with many IMAX screenings across major cities like Los Angeles and New York either sold out or close to capacity well into the week. At the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, which recorded the biggest opening weekend in the venue’s history for the film, IMAX 70MM screenings reportedly continued pulling in strong numbers even days after release. Ahead of release, the film had already sold out more than a dozen IMAX screenings a full year in advance, with advance ticket sales reportedly reaching between $30 and $40 million in the lead-up to opening weekend.
With a stronger than expected Monday behind it, The Odyssey looks well positioned to keep its momentum going into its second weekend. Universal has yet to comment officially on the figures, which remain estimated for now, but if they hold, Nolan’s take on Homer’s epic will have delivered one of the strongest theatrical runs of any film in 2026 so far, and one of the biggest of his entire career.
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