Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' Becomes His Highest-Grossing Film at $1.104 Billion
Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey has surpassed every film in his catalogue to become the highest-grossing release of his career, reaching $1.104 billion worldwide in its first month of release, Universal Pictures confirmed on Sunday, 9 August 2026 (The Hollywood Reporter).
The figure edges out The Dark Knight Rises (2012), which grossed $1.085 billion globally, and The Dark Knight (2008), which finished its run at $1.005 billion. Nolan's most recent film before The Odyssey, the 2023 biopic Oppenheimer, sits fourth on his personal list with $975.8 million worldwide. Universal distributed both Oppenheimer and The Odyssey, making the studio Nolan's home for his two most commercially successful non-superhero films back to back.
The Odyssey opened on 17 July 2026 and posted Nolan's biggest global opening ever, $139.564 million, per The Numbers (The Numbers). By the Sunday of the report, the film had collected $461.1 million domestically — that is, in the United States and Canada — with the remaining $642.9 million coming from international markets. Just a day earlier, on 8 August, the film stood roughly $73 million shy of The Dark Knight Rises' record; it closed that gap over the weekend (Hindustan Times).
Matt Damon leads the cast as Odysseus, alongside Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway and Robert Pattinson. For Damon, Hathaway and Pattinson, The Odyssey now ranks as the highest-grossing film of their respective careers. Nolan and his producing partner Emma Thomas produced the film through their Syncopy banner.
The film also set an IMAX benchmark: $1 million in ticket sales at the BFI IMAX in London within its first 24 hours, a record for the venue (Universal Pictures).
The Odyssey enters the year's top five highest-grossing films globally, joining The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Michael, Toy Story 5 and Spider-Man: Brand New Day in the billion-dollar club. Universal's fingerprints are all over that list: the studio distributed The Super Mario Galaxy Movie outright and handled international distribution for Michael, with Lionsgate taking domestic on that title.
What gives the result its weight is the trajectory. Oppenheimer — a three-hour, R-rated historical drama — finished its run at just under a billion dollars and then won seven Academy Awards, including best director for Nolan and best picture. The Odyssey, an epic adapted from Homer, has now cleared that total inside four weeks of release. Whether awards follow is a question for later in the year; at the box office, the record already belongs to Nolan.
