Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has made a commanding start at the North American box office, earning $51 million on its opening day and putting the epic on course for a domestic debut of up to $120 million, according to industry estimates, states Variety.
The film opened in 3,919 cinemas across North America on Friday, comfortably surpassing earlier projections of a $90 million to $100 million opening weekend.
If current estimates hold, The Odyssey will become only the third film of 2026 to cross the $100 million mark on its opening weekend, following Toy Story 5 and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
The film reportedly carries a production budget of $250 million.
The projected opening would mark Nolan’s strongest box-office debut since The Dark Knight Rises, which opened to $160 million in 2012.
It would also eclipse the $82 million opening weekend of his Oscar-winning Oppenheimer.
With its Friday earnings alone, The Odyssey has already surpassed the entire opening weekend gross of Nolan’s 2014 film Interstellar, which debuted with $47.5 million.
Based on Homer’s ancient Greek epic, The Odyssey follows Odysseus on his perilous journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War.
Matt Damon stars in the lead role alongside an ensemble cast that includes Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Elliot Page, Jon Bernthal and John Leguizamo.
Disney’s live-action Moana ranked second on Friday with $5.5 million and is expected to earn $19 million over the weekend, marking a 56% drop from its opening weekend.
Minions & Monsters claimed third place after collecting $4.3 million on Friday.
The animated feature is projected to add $14 million by Sunday, lifting its domestic total to around $136 million after three weekends.
Pixar’s Toy Story 5 finished fourth with $4.2 million on Friday and is expected to reach a North American total of about $429 million by the end of the weekend.
Rounding out the top five, Evil Dead Burn earned an estimated $1.4 million on Friday and is projected to finish the weekend with $23 million in domestic ticket sales.
