{"id":531103,"date":"2026-07-17T18:57:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T18:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/531103\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T18:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T18:57:12","slug":"the-odyssey-is-already-off-to-an-epic-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/531103\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Odyssey’ Is Already Off to an Epic Start"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christopher Nolan films<\/a> are pretty much guaranteed to rake in critical and commercial success. But in the wake of Nolan\u2019s Oscar-winning Oppenheimer, hype for his all-star, all-IMAX<\/a> take on The Odyssey<\/a> started to build exponentially. Not many films would be so bold to put select tickets on sale an entire year in advance, but The Odyssey did, and people bought the hell out of them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was a clever publicity stunt that generated long-lead excitement for the movie. Then, when tickets went on sale again, in the more conventional month-ahead-of-time window, it was also a competitive process<\/a>\u2014especially for fans with specific format preferences, since The Odyssey offers a lot of options<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That brings us to now: opening weekend. As people race to get their eyeballs on Matt Damon\u2019s mythical adventure, maybe while clutching the Trojan horse popcorn bucket<\/a>, the numbers are reflecting all the pre-sales and present enthusiasm. As Variety<\/a> reports, preview screenings alone have already netted $17.6 million\u2014squeaking past Toy Story 5\u2018s $17.5 million and notching the best preview-screening numbers of 2026 so far.<\/p>\n

While early predictions have suggested Spider-Man: Brand New Day could set yet another record<\/a> when it opens in a couple of weeks (it\u2019s a great year for Tom Holland, who\u2019s also in The Odyssey), Nolan\u2019s latest is already safely sailing toward blockbuster territory.<\/p>\n

Variety writes that The Odyssey will likely make \u201cbetween $90 million and $100 million in its opening weekend,\u201d which would be \u201cNolan\u2019s biggest launch since The Dark Knight Rises racked up $160 million in 2012.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, the trade also notes that the preview-night bonanza means The Odyssey could very well end up topping those predictions; if it pulls in over $100 million on its opening weekend, it will be the third film in 2026 to do so, after Toy Story 5 and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christopher Nolan films are pretty much guaranteed to rake in critical and commercial success. But in the wake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[58943,156,409,111,139,69,95371],"class_list":["post-531103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-christopher-nolan","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-the-odyssey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}