Will The Odyssey Make $1 Billion?

Will The Odyssey Make $1 Billion?

The Odyssey is out in theaters and is already breaking records for Christopher Nolan and 2026 movies in general. As of right now, the film is tracking for a $115-$125 million domestic opening which could make it the biggest opening for a non-Batman Christopher Nolan movie. With these great box office numbers, there has been a lot of debate as to whether the film will make $1 billion? I am not as sold on the idea as many people are, so here are three reasons why the film could make $1 billion and three reasons that could prevent it from making $1 billion.

Why It Could

• Reason #1: Christopher Nolan’s Follow-up to Oppenheimer: This film is Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to Oppenheimer. It is not just a movie that got critical acclaim, it is not just a movie that made $1 billion, it is also a movie that won Christopher Nolan a bunch of Oscars. Naturally, whatever Nolan’s follow-up was going to be, there was going to be a lot of excitement going into it. For most people myself included, The Odyssey was their most anticipated film of 2026. When you have a movie where there’s large amounts of excitement going into it, it’s likely going to be a big box office hit if the movie does deliver and based on the reviews the movie is delivering the movie that critics and audiences wanted. 

• Reason #2: Fantastic Reviews: This is building off what I just said, which is The Odyssey has been getting fantastic reviews. When the Rotten Tomatoes score dropped it was at 98%. With it now being Saturday, the score is at 95% which is the highest rated film of Nolan’s career. It is 1% higher than The Dark Knight, which is widely regarded as his best film. Even the audience scores for the movie on Rotten Tomatoes and Letterboxd are fantastic. We will talk about this later, but there have been several controversies surrounding this film. Audiences watch the movie and are clearly not bothered by the castings of Elliot Page or Lupita Nyong’o, or any number of the things that the internet overreacted about. When you have a movie that had a lot of excitement mixed with the movie delivering and getting fantastic reviews. It is making people want to see this movie to see if it delivers and it lives up to the hype. Beyond that, it is adapting source material that was written 3,000 years ago and has never been adapted before. This film is going to have fantastic legs, because the reviews are fantastic and people are wanting to see this film on the big screen. 

• Reason #3: IMAX Ticket Sales: If you do not remember, IMAX 70mm tickets went on sale last July. Tickets for this movie went on sale a year in advance and were selling out theaters. If you do not know, The Odyssey is the first movie ever to be shot entirely in IMAX. The film was shot to be screened in 70mm IMAX, which is not your typical IMAX. For context, there are only 41 theaters in the world that have the 70mm IMAX, so only 41 theaters can show The Odyssey in its true form. Tickets for those theaters were selling out a year in advance. That is crazy and that is just the power of Christopher Nolan. He is the only director currently working that can sell out theaters a year before the movie comes out and before we have seen a single frame of this movie. Beyond that, even at the normal IMAX screens, theaters are selling out. The day that I am writing this, Saturday I plan to see the film a second time later today. I want to see the film in IMAX and my local IMAX screen does not have any good seats left because there is so much demand to see this film in IMAX. I have friends who are massive movie fans, and they want to see The Odyssey in IMAX, and they are willing to wait until they can get a good seat. They are willing to wait to see this film for the first time in IMAX. That is how much excitement and demand there is to see this film in IMAX. 

 Why Not

• Reason #1: Spider-Man: Brand New Day: Of course, we all know that Spider-Man: Brand New Day is going to make money at the box office. This film is tracking to have the biggest domestic and worldwide opening of 2026. It is going to make $1 billion in just a few weeks. We know that Spider-Man is going to be important, and it is going to be pulling away a lot of attention from The Odyssey. Theaters are going to be pulled from The Odyssey and given to Spider-Man, especially like the Cinemark XD theaters. The fewer screens that The Odyssey will be playing on in a couple of weeks, will hurt its box office in some regards. At the same time, Brand New Day is not getting an IMAX release because of The Odyssey. There is some negotiation that Christopher Nolan made where The Odyssey must play in IMAX screens for at least three weeks. Because of that, Brand New Day is not getting an IMAX release which is crazy. As I am writing this, The Odyssey is not going to be affected at all by Spider-Man. But you must consider Spider-Man as a threat here because it is a more accessible film and it is a big blockbuster and those can work against other blockbusters.
  

• Reason #2: Controversies: The Odyssey discourse leading up to the film was so weird. Because Christopher Nolan has a 25-year-old track record of putting out great movies, it is very weird that suddenly, the narrative has switched from Christopher Nolan is the goat to Christopher Nolan has lost it. The whole controversy was so weird to me. Some of them I could understand a little bit more like Lupita Nyong’o and Elliot Page when there were rumors about who they were going to be playing. But once it was revealed who they were playing and once you realize how much screen time they have, the internet still did not calm down. How much will the controversies hurt the movie’s box office? Well, based on its current opening weekend tracking numbers, I do not think so. But there are people that do not want to see this movie because of some of the choices that Nolan made. I can disagree with that, but it is the truth. Once again, I do not know how much the film will be affected by the controversies. But given the discourse surrounding the film, it is something you must talk about.

• Reason #3: R-rated: This is the biggest hurdle that The Odyssey must get over to make $1 billion. Over the course of cinema, only 62 movies have made $1 billion. Which seems like a lot, but it is not when you consider how many movies get released every single year and how many movies have gotten. More importantly, only two of those movies have been R-rated, that’s Joker and Deadpool & Wolverine, two comic book movies. If The Odyssey makes $1 billion, it will be the first non-comic book movie to make $1 billion. It is a struggle that it will have to go through to make $1 billion. It is rare for an R-rated movie to make $1 billion, especially one that is not a comic book movie. Joker made $1 billion because it came out in 2019 when comic book movies were just knocking it out of the park, it was the same year of Avengers Endgame. Obviously, there is no connection between the two, but it was a year of people loving comic book movies. Deadpool & Wolverine made $1 billion because Deadpool is incredibly popular and they brought back Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. So, in both of those movie’s cases, there was this big hook to see this movie in the theater. The Odyssey has that with the source material that it is adapting and with it being the next Christopher Nolan movie which are events in it of themselves. We will just have to see and see if another R-rated movie can make $1 billion. 

Final Thoughts: Overall, The Odyssey has a great shot to make $1 billion. Some people think it is a lock to make $1 billion, while it is likely for the film to make $1 billion. There are some things that could prevent it from making $1 billion. But if one director can make The Odyssey a $1 billion film, it is of course Christopher Nolan who is an absolute legend. If this movie makes $1 billion, when Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Jon Bernthal are going to have quite the July, they are going to have two movies to make $1 billion.