“The Odyssey” has crossed $1 billion in global ticket sales at a mind-boggling pace.
After just three weeks of release, Christopher Nolan‘s epic, starring Matt Damon as the Greek king Odysseus, has generated $429.65 million domestically and $578.8 million internationally for a grand total of $1.008 billion. It’s the director’s first movie since 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises” to clear the coveted box office milestone. In a matter of days, “The Odyssey” will become Nolan’s highest-grossing release of all time, eclipsing the long-held records of “The Dark Knight Rises” ($1.08 billion) and 2009’s “The Dark Knight” ($1.008 billion). It’s a remarkable accomplishment — especially for an adult-skewing drama that’s nearly three hours long and adapted from a nearly 3,000-year-old poem — solidifying Nolan as the most bankable filmmaker of his generation.
Imax has contributed a massive $257 million in ticket sales, and “The Odyssey” will rank as the company’s highest-grossing release of all time by the end of the weekend.
“The Odyssey” joined the billion-dollar club before opening in China, the world’s second-biggest moviegoing market. The country is rolling out the red-carpet treatment for the film, which is expected to land on nearly 800 Imax screens and across thousands of standard auditoriums on Aug. 14.
