Hollywood spent two decades de-risking itself by betting on intellectual property rather than people. The franchise became the attraction, eclipsing the directors and movie stars who once drew audiences to theaters. The stars became Harry Potter, Optimus Prime, Iron Man and Elsa.<\/p>\n
Christopher Nolan<\/a> has been a rare exception, and the No. 1 opening for \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d over the weekend \u2014 turning Homer\u2019s 3,000-year-old poem into an instant blockbuster \u2014 underscored the extraordinary degree to which he himself has become the attraction.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d the first commercial feature filmed completely in IMAX<\/a>, was on track to sell $124.5 million in tickets in the United States and Canada from Thursday through Sunday, according to Rentrak, a film data service. It will easily be the biggest domestic opening of the year for a live-action film. Among all 2026 movies, it will rank third, behind \u201cToy Story 5\u201d ($160 million) and \u201cThe Super Mario Galaxy Movie\u201d ($132 million).<\/p>\n A majority of ticket buyers cited Mr. Nolan as the primary reason they bought tickets, according to PostTrak, a film industry research service. The film\u2019s ensemble cast ranked second. Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, John Leguizamo, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong\u2019o, Elliot Page and Tom Holland have roles of varying sizes.<\/p>\n IMAX locations delivered about 24 percent of the opening total. AMC Entertainment, the world\u2019s largest theater operator, scheduled 70-millimeter IMAX screenings at 2 a.m., 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. in some cities to meet demand. Almost all sold out.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we look out at our presales for the next five weeks, we\u2019ve sold out shows in IMAX film in week five for a lot of theaters, so this thing is going to play,\u201d said Rich Gelfond, IMAX\u2019s chief executive.<\/p>\n \u201cNolan used IMAX technology in a way no one ever has to create something no one has ever seen,\u201d Mr. Gelfond added, noting that the company designed a new camera specifically for the film.<\/p>\n Overseas, \u201cThe Odyssey<\/a>\u201d was expected to sell an additional $139.6 million in tickets, for a worldwide opening of about $264.1 million. The nearly three-hour epic was produced by Mr. Nolan and Emma Thomas, a husband-wife team who have produced many films together, and cost Universal Pictures an estimated $250 million to make. Marketing easily added $100 million to the price.<\/p>\n Reviews were sensational<\/a>. Domestic ticket buyers gave the R-rated film an A grade in CinemaScore exit polls.<\/p>\n Mr. Nolan\u2019s breakthrough at the box office came in 2005, when his superhero reboot \u201cBatman Begins\u201d collected $375.6 million, or about $658 million after adjusting for inflation. Two more fan-favorite Batman movies followed, along with a 2010 original science-fiction smash, \u201cInception,\u201d which collected $1.3 billion in today\u2019s dollars. Starting in 2014, Mr. Nolan began focusing exclusively on original titles, delivering runaway hits like \u201cInterstellar,\u201d \u201cDunkirk\u201d and \u201cOppenheimer,\u201d which won seven Oscars in 2024, including best picture and director.<\/p>\n In the process, Mr. Nolan accomplished an increasingly rare feat: He became one of the few filmmakers whose name itself functions as a commercial brand. While studios spent years teaching audiences to trust intellectual property, he taught them to trust him.<\/p>\n \u201cChristopher Nolan is the only filmmaker working today who could take an ancient story like this, attract a cast as sprawling and accomplished as this, and make it a pop culture event,\u201d said David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter<\/a> on box office numbers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hollywood spent two decades de-risking itself by betting on intellectual property rather than people. The franchise became the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[92883,10585,95561,98256,113978,80113,9,11,10,113976,113977,113975,901,74061],"class_list":["post-300173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-box-office-sales","tag-canada","tag-christopher","tag-coleman","tag-damon","tag-matt","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-nolan","tag-ratings-audience-measurement","tag-the-odyssey-2026-movie","tag-united-states","tag-zendaya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}