Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey has defied targeted online boycott campaigns to secure a $264 million global opening weekend following its release on July 17, according to the-independent.com.
The figure marks the director’s strongest box office debut since The Dark Knight Rises in 2012, surpassing the opening weekend total of his 2023 hit Oppenheimer.
The commercial success comes despite online hostility directed at casting decisions, including transgender actor Elliot Page as the soldier Sinon and Black actor Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy. High-profile figures, including tech billionaire Elon Musk, engaged with criticisms predicting the film would fail financially. Responding to the backlash prior to release, Nolan dismissed the online reaction as “irrelevant,” noting that critics had not seen the finished project.
Production details also drew minor criticism from classical scholars regarding costume choices, such as male characters wearing trousers rather than tunics, and the use of modern English dialogue. However, the film has achieved critical acclaim, holding a 95 per cent approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and a 4.4 out of five rating on film platform Letterboxd, making it Nolan’s highest-rated project to date.
The non-linear film, which runs under three hours, stars Matt Damon alongside Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, and Benny Safdie. The plot follows Odysseus’s journey home following the Trojan War alongside the political turmoil in Ithaca.
The performance positions The Odyssey to challenge Nolan’s highest-grossing career releases, including The Dark Knight ($1.09 billion) and Inception ($839 million). In its first week, the film surpassed the entire five-week global theatrical run of Steven Spielberg’s latest feature, Disclosure Day, which generated $236.1 million.