Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ Achieves Major Opening Day Success in France

France has long been a key market for Christopher Nolan, where his films often attract audiences that rival or even exceed domestic numbers. With ‘The Odyssey’ debuting internationally ahead of its broader global release, the focus was on how French viewers would react to this three-hour epic adaptation of Homer.

The film hit French theaters a day before its U.S. premiere, providing a first glimpse into its box office performance. Given the film’s scale and star-studded cast, expectations were already high leading up to opening day.

Those expectations were not only met but exceeded. ‘The Odyssey’ recorded 232,972 admissions on its opening day in French cinemas, making it the third-largest single-day opening of the year, only behind ‘Michael’ and ‘Super Mario Galaxy: Le Film.’

To put this achievement into perspective, ‘The Odyssey’ accounted for approximately 94 percent of all admissions from new releases that week in France. Such dominance on its opening day indicates that audiences overwhelmingly favored Nolan’s epic over other new films.

The film also achieved a notable average of 76 admissions per screening, ranking fourth for the best per-screening averages for a Wednesday release in France this year. Only ‘Michael,’ the Stray Kids concert film, and ‘Backrooms’ surpassed it in this category.

When comparing ‘The Odyssey’ to Nolan’s previous films, the opening day total is significantly higher than ‘Oppenheimer,’ which garnered about 160,000 admissions on its first day in France in 2023. It aligns closely with ‘Tenet,’ which had approximately 236,000 admissions on its opening day in August 2020.

The early numbers from Paris were equally promising for Universal. ‘The Odyssey’ led all new releases in Parisian screenings before 2 p.m., with 7,603 admissions across 34 cinemas, marking the best opening of its kind for the capital in seven months and the third-best post-pandemic performance in that time slot.

These figures also place the film ahead of several of Nolan’s past releases in early Paris admissions, outperforming ‘Inception,’ ‘The Dark Knight,’ ‘Oppenheimer,’ ‘Batman Begins,’ ‘Interstellar,’ and ‘Dunkirk,’ while still trailing ‘The Dark Knight Rises.’

With such a robust first day, attention now shifts to whether ‘The Odyssey’ can reach Nolan’s highest benchmarks in France. ‘Oppenheimer’ finished its opening week with 1.1 million admissions in France, ultimately totaling 4.5 million, while ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ holds the director’s all-time French record with 1.8 million admissions in its debut week.

A strong opening in France is particularly significant, given the country’s historical importance to Nolan’s international success. His films have consistently found substantial audiences in markets like France, the UK, and Germany, and this impressive opening day suggests that trend continues with ‘The Odyssey.’

This news also offers a boost for Universal, following a mixed reception for some recent releases in the French market. With ‘The Odyssey’ proving it can compete with the year’s biggest hits on its opening day, the film appears well-positioned as it heads into its opening weekend both in France and globally.

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