What you need to know
- The Odyssey took an estimated $51m in its third weekend, down 43 per cent.
- Its running domestic total reached about $396m across 3,861 screens.
- The drop was the shallowest third weekend of Nolan's career.
- It passed Oppenheimer's lifetime domestic gross in 13 days.
- Summer domestic box office stands just above $3bn, within reach of $4bn.
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey fell to second place at the North American box office in its third weekend, taking an estimated $51 million and lifting its domestic total to about $396 million, as Spider-Man: Brand New Day opened to a record Friday.
The Universal Pictures release played on 3,861 screens, 81 fewer than the previous weekend. It had held the top spot for two consecutive weekends before the Sony and Marvel opening.
How steep was the drop?
The film took $14.5 million on Friday, down 44 per cent week on week. Deadline reported the 43 per cent third-weekend decline was the shallowest of Nolan’s career at that stage of a release, a notable hold given the scale of the competing opening.
The Odyssey passed the lifetime domestic gross of Nolan’s Oppenheimer in 13 days. Trade forecasts now put its domestic run on course for roughly half a billion dollars, which would make it his second highest grossing film in North America behind The Dark Knight, on $534 million.
What does this mean for the summer season?
The two releases have reshaped the calendar. The Hollywood Reporter noted studios avoided placing any wide releases in the intervening weekend rather than risk being squeezed between the two.
Rentrak put the summer domestic box office slightly above $3 billion, with the firm’s head of marketplace trends, Paul Dergarabedian, saying the season was within reach of $4 billion. A $1 billion August has been achieved only twice in North America, in 2014 and 2016; August 2024 came close at more than $907 million.
How did The Odyssey perform in its third weekend?
The Odyssey, directed by Christopher Nolan and distributed by Universal Pictures, took an estimated $51 million in its third weekend at the North American box office over 1-2 August 2026, a decline of 43 per cent from the previous weekend. It finished second behind the opening of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, having led the box office for the two preceding weekends. The film played on 3,861 screens and its running domestic total reached approximately $396 million. Industry forecasts project a final domestic gross near $500 million, which would rank it second among Nolan’s films in North America behind The Dark Knight at $534 million. The film surpassed the lifetime domestic total of Nolan’s 2023 release Oppenheimer within 13 days of opening.
What else was in the top five?
| Rank | Film | 3-day estimate | Domestic total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spider-Man: Brand New Day | $325m-$350m | Week 1 |
| 2 | The Odyssey | $51m | $395.5m |
| 3 | Toy Story 5 | $6.2m | $461.5m |
| 4 | Minions & Monsters | $5.6m | $168.1m |
| 5 | Moana | $5.3m | $114.7m |
The weekend’s other wide opening was I Want Your Sex, directed by Gregg Araki and starring Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman. Magnolia Pictures released the film in 700 North American theatres, where it was tracking towards about $675,000 and eighth place.
Format mix separates the two films. Deadline reported that premium large-format screens took 24 per cent of the Spider-Man weekend gross, and that The Odyssey had depended more heavily on those screens through its own run. The overall North American market was estimated at $434 million for the weekend, up 195 per cent on the previous frame.
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Sources for this report
The Redline News Desk
The Redline News desk files and edits world reporting. Every story carries the sources it was built from, and corrections are published on the story itself.
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