Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ Grosses $1.55B, Passes Original ‘Avengers’ to Become 14th-Biggest Movie Ever

Christopher Nolan’s epic The Odyssey has crossed the $1.553 billion mark at the worldwide box office. The film has officially surpassed Marvel’s The Avengers (2012) to claim the 14th spot on the all-time highest-grossing movies list, unadjusted for inflation.

Displacing ‘The Avengers’ and the Global Top 20

According to Box Office Mojo, the film has earned $564 million domestically in North America, with international markets contributing an additional $989 million.

Per The Numbers’ all-time worldwide box office chart, the current top 20 looks like this:

• 14. The Odyssey — $1.553 billion;
• 15. The Avengers — $1.520 billion;
• 16. Furious 7 — $1.515 billion;
• 17–18. Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: Fire and Ash — around $1.50 billion.

As Rotten Tomatoes notes, to climb another spot, the film will need to overtake the live-action remake of The Lion King ($1.66 billion) and the first Jurassic World ($1.67 billion).

A Personal Record for Nolan and the Top R-Rated Film Ever

The Odyssey has become the highest-grossing film of Christopher Nolan’s career by a wide margin, surpassing his previous best, The Dark Knight Rises ($1.08 billion), by nearly half a billion dollars. For comparison, his Oscar-winning Oppenheimer ended its run with $976 million.

The film has also cemented its status as the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time, overtaking the summer superhero hit Deadpool & Wolverine ($1.338 billion).

Recouping a $250M Budget and IMAX Dominance

The production budget for the Universal Pictures film was around $250 million, making it Nolan’s most expensive project to date. The movie opened with a record-breaking $264 million worldwide debut for the director and has shown remarkable staying power: according to the Associated Press, even a month and a half after its July premiere, it added another $14 million over the past weekend in the US.

A key factor in its box office endurance has been the frenzy for premium-format tickets. The film was shot on IMAX large-format film cameras, and screenings on 70mm film have been booked weeks in advance.

Nolan’s auteur historical project breaking into the top 15 of all-time blockbusters is a unique precedent in modern distribution, where the upper echelons have traditionally been dominated by family-friendly franchises from Disney, Marvel, and James Cameron’s universe.