Topline“The Odyssey,” Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated and star-studded $250 million epic, made $17.6 million in preview screenings ahead of its opening weekend, taking the title of the biggest first-day haul for any movie this year from “Toy Story 5.”"The Odyssey" is expected to have a huge opening weekend. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Universal Pictures)Getty Images for Universal PicturesKey FactsThe $17.6 million earned by “The Odyssey” just eclipses that of “Toy Story 5,” which earned $17.5 million in Thursday previews when it opened in theaters last month.“The Odyssey” could be headed for an opening weekend between $90 million and $100 million, Variety reported, though it noted the movie could well surpass those estimates because its Thursday performance was so strong.“The Odyssey” beat Nolan’s last Oscar-winning feature, “Oppenheimer,” which made $10.5 million from Thursday previews before going on to gross nearly $1 billion worldwide. contraThe highest gross in a single day for a movie this year actually belongs to “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” which made $48 million on its first Friday in theaters in April—but that movie unconventionally opened on a Wednesday, so it didn’t have the typical Thursday preview screenings most movies have.What Are Critics Saying About “The Odyssey”?Critics have hailed “The Odyssey” as among the best movies of the year, and it has an excellent 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 298 critics reviews. That’s higher than the 93% score of Nolan’s 2023 movie “Oppenheimer,” which won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. NPR praised “The Odyssey” as “the epic only Christopher Nolan could make,” saying the director made the film “with epic sweep and grandeur, on a big-time Hollywood budget.” The New York Times review praised the movie as a “classic in every sense, a transporting affirmation of the art and a work of pure cinema.”big number$375 million. That’s the total cost of the $250 million production budget and the $125 million marketing spend behind “The Odyssey,” Variety reported, meaning the movie has a high bar to clear to become profitable. The movie, though, is expected to be a hit, though, as plenty of screenings (some of which are held at odd times, like 3 a.m., to accommodate eager fans) have sold out as the movie has smashed ticket sales records. Nolan is also no stranger to big box office hits: he’s one of the highest-grossing directors of all time with more than $6 billion in total gross, led by his “Dark Knight” films and “Inception.”tangentElon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, has ripped into Nolan for being “racist against the Greek people” by hiring a diverse cast, including Black actress Lupita Nyong’o and transgender actor Elliot Page. Musk has posted frequently about “The Odyssey,” though some of his posts have been riddled with misinformation. Critics largely dismissed Musk’s anti-woke crusade, with a critic for the Arizona Republic calling Musk’s remarks “racist and ugly.”further readingCritics Rave About ‘The Odyssey’—And Slam Elon Musk’s Anti-Woke Campaign (Forbes)