Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey conquers South Korea as Spider-Man holds firm across Asia
Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey opened wide in South Korea on August 5 and took the weekend crown for August 7-9, 2026, earning $10.3 million from 1.33 million admissions across 1,798 screens — a 45.13% market share, per KOBIS data reported by Variety. Since its Wednesday launch, the Matt Damon-starring epic has collected $14.4 million from 1.87 million admissions in the market.
Right behind it, Spider-Man: Brand New Day placed second with $9.2 million from 1.26 million admissions — a 40.38% share — bringing its South Korean cumulative total to $43.7 million from 5.92 million admissions, per Variety. The Tom Holland and Zendaya film had debuted at No. 1 in South Korea the previous weekend with $16.9 million.
Together, the two films powered South Korea to its biggest weekend of 2026: a collective $22.9 million across the top ten, up from $20.8 million the prior frame.
In China, the roles were reversed. Spider-Man: Brand New Day held No. 1 for a second weekend with $28.9 million (RMB 196.6 million), bringing its 12-day local total to $185.4 million (RMB 1.26 billion), per The Hollywood Reporter. That figure puts it within striking distance of the $199 million earned by 2019's Spider-Man: Far From Home — the last American superhero release to clear $100 million in China.
Nolan's film, which did not officially open in Chinese cinemas until Friday, managed $6.9 million (RMB 46.8 million) in previews over Saturday and Sunday, playing exclusively on Imax and CINITY screens — the premium large-format systems that command higher ticket prices. That was enough for fifth place. Earlier four-city previews on August 1-2 drew a 95.2% occupancy rate, which local media citing data platform Dengta called an all-time high for the market, per The Hollywood Reporter. The Odyssey opens on China's IMAX screens on August 14.
The numbers land against a particular backdrop in China. The market's 2026 box office stands at $3.57 billion after the weekend, down 31.8% from the same point last year — though that comparison is skewed by Ne Zha 2, which earned more than $2 billion in China in the first half of 2025. The gap has narrowed steadily since March, when the market trailed by nearly 56%.
Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Soccer, absent from the China top five for the first time since its July 11 release, still stands as the summer's biggest title at roughly $318.5 million. Pearl Studio's animated All Wishes Come True held second in its fourth weekend with $20.4 million, reaching a $210.6 million total — China's top animated feature of the year.
Back in South Korea, the rest of the chart told its own story. Teenieping: Legend of the Whale Heartstone placed third with $1.9 million, followed by Na Hong-Jin's Hope in fourth with $748,364 — that film has now grossed $33.2 million locally from 4.39 million ticket buyers. Toy Story 5, in ninth place with just $43,972, has nonetheless amassed $21.3 million in the market.
The Odyssey, a 177-minute epic and the first feature shot entirely on Imax film cameras, crossed $1 billion worldwide last week ahead of its wide Chinese release, per The Hollywood Reporter. It scored 8.3 on Chinese review site Douban — the summer's highest rating for a live-action release.
