Christopher Nolan's mythological epic has now outrun Avatar's IMAX haul by nearly $270 million, and its premium-format run isn't done yet.
Seventy-three days in, and The Odyssey still hasn't slowed down enough to matter.
Christopher Nolan's mythological epic has pulled in an estimated $6.8 million worldwide through IMAX screens in its eleventh weekend alone, according to numbers from box office analyst Luiz Fernando cited by Koimoi. That's only an 11.7% dip from the weekend before, which for a film past the two-month mark is close to unheard of. The cume now stands at $534 million from IMAX screenings worldwide, split between $310 million international and $224 million in North America.
That number matters because it makes The Odyssey the highest-grossing IMAX release of all time, full stop. It has gone past Avatar's IMAX total by roughly $265 million, and Avatar was supposed to be the format's permanent benchmark. Nolan's Matt Damon-led take on Homer, with Odysseus fighting his way home past the Cyclops, the Sirens and Calypso, has quietly rewritten that math.
The knock-on numbers are just as loud. Domestically, The Odyssey has now overtaken Incredibles 2's total haul and is closing in on a spot in the all-time top 15 grossers list. Internationally, it's cracked the top 10 highest-grossing films ever, sliding past both The Lion King's $1.12 billion and Star Wars: The Force Awakens' $1.13 billion overseas tallies to land at the 10th spot globally. For a film built around a three-thousand-year-old poem, that's not a small thing.
The worldwide cume across all formats sits at $1.8 billion, with trade estimates now pointing to a final finish somewhere between $1.8 and $1.9 billion. IMAX has extended the film's premium-format run in several markets through the end of September, which means these numbers are still moving, not settled.
Worth flagging: these are estimates from trade trackers, not studio-confirmed figures, and Koimoi notes they haven't been independently verified. That's standard for running box office tallies at this stage of a release, but it's why the final IMAX total could still shift a little either way once distributors close the books.
What happens once the IMAX windows close in various territories is the next thing to watch. If the drop-off stays this gentle, The Odyssey's premium-format total could keep climbing even after the extended runs wrap, and the gap it's opened up over Avatar might get wider before anyone gets a chance to close it.
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