Christopher Nolan's mythological epic sits third in China's weekend rankings even as it closes in on $600 million at home and $1.64 billion worldwide.
Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey just won't leave the top five in China, four weekends after it opened there. The Matt Damon-led mythological epic pulled in another $5.5 million over the weekend, per figures reported by Variety, landing third in the local rankings against a slate of newer releases.
That weekend haul takes its China total to $97.4 million. Which means it's sitting roughly $3 million shy of the $100 million mark, a number that would put it among a short list of post-pandemic Hollywood films to clear that bar in the market.
To actually break into the top 10 post-COVID Hollywood grossers in China, though, The Odyssey needs to get past Meg 2: The Trench's $115.7 million. That's still some distance off, but four weekends of holding a top-five spot against fresh competition suggests the film isn't done yet.
The bigger picture
China is just one theatre of a much larger campaign here. Domestically, The Odyssey stands at $588.9 million, closing in on the $600 million line in North America alone. Add it all up and the worldwide total has crossed $1.64 billion, a genuinely enormous number for a film built around Homer's epic poem rather than a franchise name or a comic-book universe.
There's a specific milestone lurking in that worldwide figure too. Reports have suggested the film is on course to overtake Jurassic World as Universal's highest-grossing release of all time, which would be a remarkable outcome for a Nolan film that drew plenty of skepticism when its cast was first announced. Damon as Odysseus, alongside a starry ensemble tackling the Cyclops, the Sirens and Calypso, wasn't an obvious sell on paper. The box office numbers since July 17 suggest audiences didn't share the internet's early doubts.
Worth flagging that these figures are estimates circulating through trade reporting and haven't been independently verified, so treat the exact dollar amounts as directional rather than final.
What happens next in China matters more than it might seem. If The Odyssey can hold its perch through a fifth or sixth weekend, the $100 million line falls almost by default, and the Meg 2 benchmark starts to look reachable too. For a three-hour period epic with no sequel baked in, that kind of legs, five weekends deep, in a market that isn't always kind to Hollywood tentpoles, is the number Universal will be watching closest as autumn approaches.
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