The IMAX epic passed 8.47 million admissions Sunday and could hit the coveted 10 million mark within a week Posters for Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" hang at a multiplex in Seoul on Aug. 17. (Yonhap) The box office race that had local film fans hooked through the month finally has a winner.Over the weekend, "The Odyssey" pulled ahead of "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" to become the year's biggest foreign release in Korea, capping a monthlong duel between two Hollywood blockbusters that have put up massive numbers worldwide.Christopher Nolan's Homer adaptation had drawn 8.47 million admissions as of Sunday morning, nudging past the 8.45 million recorded by Marvel's superhero sequel, according to the state-run Korean Film Council's box office tracking system.The gap is wider in ticket revenue — 93 billion won (about $67.5 million) versus 88 billion won — suggesting that more moviegoers have paid up for pricier IMAX and other premium-format showings of the Universal Pictures release."Spider-Man: Brand New Day" opened July 29, a week ahead of "The Odyssey," and kept its nose in front on overall ticket sales until this weekend. Head-to-head, though, it was Nolan's film that held the upper hand the whole way.It hasn't budged from the daily No. 1 spot since arriving Aug. 5 and has led the presales chart for 28 straight days. On Friday, it surged past 8 million admissions faster than any release this year. Even "The King's Warden," February's runaway smash hit that moved 16.9 million tickets, took two days longer to get there. "The Odyssey" starring Matt Damon (Universal Pictures Korea) Now just 1.5 million tickets short of the 10 million mark, "The Odyssey" is closing in on the milestone that separates the hits from the all-timers. The prospects are looking good so far: Its weekly numbers show no signs of dipping, while tickets for its flagship IMAX showings still remain in hot demand.Crossing the line would make "The Odyssey" the first foreign film to do so this year and the second release overall, after "The King's Warden." It would also be Nolan's second film to reach the 10 million mark in Korea, a dozen years after "Interstellar" (2014).The frenzy is spilling over to the small screen as well, with earlier adaptations of the Homeric tale enjoying a second life on the country's streaming and video-on-demand platforms."Troy" (2004), the Trojan War epic that passed through Nolan's hands before ending up back with director Wolfgang Petersen, has seen purchases on Korean VOD platforms jump more than 40-fold from July, according to Korean Film Council data that tracks online movie sales nationwide."The Odyssey" (1997), a two-part NBC miniseries co-produced by Francis Ford Coppola, reached No. 2 on the weekly chart of local streamer Wavve.Nolan's back catalog has been riding the wave, too. Purchases of "Oppenheimer" (2023) across the country have grown 15-fold this month, while "Interstellar" (2014) and "Inception" (2010) have cracked the top 50 on the same chart.