Christopher Nolan’s Name Alone Is Selling More ‘The Odyssey’ Tickets Than Its All-Star Cast
Christopher Nolan’s name has never carried more weight at the box office than it does right now with ‘The Odyssey.’ The filmmaker’s long awaited adaptation of Homer’s ancient epic finally arrived in theaters this weekend, closing out a marketing campaign that leaned heavily on Nolan’s reputation for large format spectacle. The film marks the first feature to be shot entirely on IMAX cameras, a detail that turned premium large formats into a major selling point for moviegoers long before opening night.
That anticipation translated into real numbers almost immediately. ‘The Odyssey’ grossed 17.6 million dollars in Thursday night previews alone, the best preview number of the year so far, edging out the 17.5 million dollars ‘Toy Story 5’ pulled in during June. The momentum carried straight into Friday and set the film on pace for one of the biggest live action openings of the year.
Now the real headline is coming into focus. According to Deadline’s exit polling, the single biggest reason moviegoers bought a ticket to ‘The Odyssey’ was Nolan himself, cited by 51 percent of the audience, well ahead of the ensemble cast as a whole at 44 percent and lead star Matt Damon individually at just 27 percent. For a movie stacked with names like Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron and Lupita Nyong’o, that gap says a lot about where the real pulling power sits.
The box office totals back up the enthusiasm. The film opened at number one with a three day domestic total of 120.5 million dollars, the best live action debut of the year and the third best overall behind ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ and ‘Toy Story 5.’ It also stands as Nolan’s best non Batman debut ever, trailing only ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘The Dark Knight Rises.’
The film’s reach extended well beyond North America too. With domestic at 120.5 million dollars, ‘The Odyssey’ shaped up for a 137.3 million dollar opening across 73 overseas markets, marking the biggest international opening of Nolan’s career in comparable territories, ahead of both ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘The Dark Knight Rises.’
Critics and audiences have largely lined up behind the film as well. The epic earned a Verified Hot 97 percent Popcornmeter score on Rotten Tomatoes, the best audience rating of Nolan’s career, alongside a Certified Fresh 95 percent from critics. Exit surveys also handed it a strong 81 percent definite recommend rating.
‘The Odyssey’ brought Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland and a genuinely stacked ensemble to theaters for a nearly three hour retelling of Homer’s journey home. Yet the numbers suggest audiences showed up chasing the director’s vision more than any single face on the poster. With Nolan once again proving he can move an audience on name recognition alone, do you think ‘The Odyssey’ would have opened this big without him attached, or did the ensemble cast carry more weight than the exit polls suggest?
