Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey pulled in $87 million at the domestic box office in its second weekend, dropping just 30% from its $123.5 million opening, per Variety. That is a remarkably gentle decline for an R-rated film — the rating that restricts viewers under 17 without an accompanying adult — and it signals sustained audience demand rather than a single opening-weekend spike.

After two weekends, the Universal Pictures release has grossed $286.4 million in North America and $639.6 million worldwide. The film, an adaptation of Homer's epic poem starring Matt Damon as the Greek king Odysseus, had a production budget of $250 million and a promotional spend of roughly $125 million. Those are the two columns that determine whether a film is profitable: what it cost to make and market, set against what it earns at the turnstile. With $639.6 million globally and weeks of summer runway ahead, The Odyssey is well on its way to covering both.

The film has been setting records along the way. Its second-weekend figure surpassed the domestic second weekend of Nolan's The Dark Knight, making it the director's biggest second weekend ever, per Deadline. Deadline reported that second weekend at $84 million-plus, a slightly lower estimate than Variety's $87 million — the gap reflects different reporting methods before studios release final actuals on Monday. Earlier in the week, The Odyssey grossed $21 million on its first Tuesday, a single-day record for Nolan (Deadline), and $18.67 million on Monday, July 20, the best Monday of 2026 to that point (Deadline).

The opening weekend itself was a blockbuster event. Universal Pictures, the studio behind both production and distribution, reported $264.1 million globally for the debut, a figure carried by both AP News and Reuters. Reuters listed the US opening at $124.5 million; Variety's later figure of $123.5 million reflects an updated count. Domestic, in box-office terms, means the United States and Canada.

What stands out is the hold. A 30% second-weekend drop is rare territory for any film, let alone one carrying an R rating that narrows its potential audience. Nolan's name and the cultural weight of Homer's source material clearly pulled in viewers who do not typically turn out for a sword-and-sandals epic on opening night — and those viewers kept coming through the week.

Deadline's early projections for the second weekend had ranged from $61 million to $74 million, published the prior Tuesday. The actual result beat every one of those forecasts by a wide margin.