Gizmodo58%
'The Odyssey' Brought Home a Big Box Office Debut 94%
By Justin Carter72%
7/20/2026, 11:00:21 AM
Topics: Box Office Performance
BS Summary: This article contains 20 faulty reasoning types, including Attempt to Sell a Product or Service, Halo Effect, and Optimism Bias, with Post Hoc (False Cause) as the most egregious example at 37.7% saturation with 113 hits. Analysis detected 814 faulty-reasoning hits from 300 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 90% and a BS Rank of 94% (1,235 of 18,786 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 93.40% of the article peer group.
Nothing could stand between Christopher Nolan and another hit movie.
In its first weekend, *The Odyssey* has made $264.1 million and beating 2012’s *The Dark Knight Rises* for the biggest opening of his career.
Per Variety, it was a near-even split between domestic ($124.5 million) and international ($139.6 million) markets.
Along with setting a new record for Nolan, this is 2026’s third-biggest opening behind *Toy Story 5* and *The Super Mario Galaxy Movie* and is generally impressive for an R-rated movie of its type.
Not entirely unexpected, though: Universal started selling tickets a year ago, and the marketing cycle's been working overtime to make it known to audiences.
High reception amongst critics and audiences doesn’t hurt either.
To further sell *The Odyssey* as a true event, some theaters had overnight (at 2 or 3 AM local time) or early morning (7 and 8 AM) screenings in 70mm IMAX.
While IMAX has long been a selling point for blockbusters, but *Odyssey* is the first movie to be shot entirely on 70mm specifically, hence the marketing push to see it in that specific premium format.
(Some theaters even had to get new rooms installed so that version of the film could play.)
Being IMAX brained appears to have paid off, as Variety's reporting reveals premium large formats made up 53% of the film's domestic take, and 23% (or $51.8 million) of worldwide sales.
Enjoy *Odyssey* in IMAX for another week, because *Spider-Man: Brand New Day* will probably take some of its non-70mm theaters on July 31.
That movie's also supposed to have a massive open, possibly the best of the year.
And if it lives up to those expectations, it means Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Jon Bernthal will be the current movie gods.
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