‘The Odyssey’ Set for Record-Breaking Opening Weekend and Career High for Matt Damon

Christopher Nolan has spent months building anticipation for ‘The Odyssey’, and the numbers coming in this weekend indicate that all that effort is about to pay off significantly. With sold-out IMAX 70mm screenings and impressive presale figures, the film’s actual opening weekend performance is living up to the excitement.

The momentum began with an astonishing Thursday preview haul. According to Deadline, ‘The Odyssey’ earned 17.6 million dollars from Thursday preview screenings across approximately 3,900 North American theaters, marking the highest preview total of the year and setting the film on track for a Friday total close to 50 million dollars.

Building on this strong start, Deadline now projects a three-day opening weekend total of 117 million dollars for ‘The Odyssey’, which would not only make it the best live-action opening of 2026 but also a career high for Matt Damon as a leading man. This figure comfortably surpasses the previous record held by 2007’s ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’, which opened at 69.2 million dollars, more than doubling Damon’s previous best in one leap.

The projected opening also positions the film ahead of other major live-action releases this year, outpacing Lionsgate’s ‘Michael’, which debuted at 97.2 million dollars. Overall, ‘The Odyssey’ is set to become the third biggest opening of 2026 across all genres, trailing only ‘Toy Story 5’ at 159.6 million dollars and ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ at 131.7 million dollars.

The film’s rating adds another layer to this milestone. As an R-rated release, ‘The Odyssey’ is on track to achieve the biggest R-rated opening weekend of the year, surpassing ‘Backrooms’ and its 81.4 million dollar debut, while also becoming the highest-grossing R-rated opening in Universal Pictures’ history, exceeding ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ and its 85.1 million dollar opening.

For Nolan, this projected opening ranks as the third best start of his directing career, following ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ at 160.8 million dollars and ‘The Dark Knight’ at 158.4 million dollars. It also leaves his previous release, 2023’s ‘Oppenheimer’, far behind, which opened to 82.4 million dollars during its own Barbenheimer moment.

Internationally, the film is performing equally well, with Deadline estimating a global debut nearing 40 million dollars and climbing, pushing the worldwide opening weekend outlook past 200 million dollars. Audiences seem just as enthusiastic as critics, with the film boasting a 96 percent audience score alongside its 96 percent Tomatometer rating, marking the best of Nolan’s career on both fronts.

With ‘The Odyssey’ currently playing in 3,919 theaters and facing no major wide release competition this weekend, it appears well-positioned to dominate the box office as official studio numbers come in.

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