Christopher Nolan’s phenomenon film confirms its success in North America and internationally, surpassing the competition during its second weekend of release.
The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s phenomenon film, retained first place at the North American box office for its second week of release, raking in an additional $87 million. Released on July 15 in France and July 17 in the United States, this feature film adapts Homer’s ancient epic and follows the hero Ulysses confronted with numerous obstacles on his return from the Trojan War.
According to industry estimates published Sunday, July 26, the Universal film demonstrated “exceptional stability” for its second weekend in theaters, falling only 30% compared to the $124 million collected at its start, underlined analyst David Gross.
With an additional $353 million internationally, the film has already amassed $640 million worldwide.
An event film, a new format
It is the first film shot entirely on 70-millimeter IMAX cameras, a format that produces a larger, sharper and brighter image.
Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway play the lead roles of Ulysses and Penelope, while Tom Holland plays their son Telemachus.
Second place goes to Moana, the Legend of the End of the World, Disney’s latest live-action remake, with $10.5 million collected over the weekend. With a total of around 225 million dollars in revenue worldwide after three weeks of operation, the film, which cost 250, “will have difficulty achieving profitability”, anticipates Variety.
The fifth installment of the Toy Story saga takes third place this weekend. The film raked in another $10 million, crossing $1 billion at the worldwide box office. This is the feature film with the best grossing since the start of the year, according to Variety.
With $9.7 million in revenue, Hadestown: The Musical came in fourth place for its first weekend of operation. The film, which mixes two ancient Greek myths with themes linked to love and class struggle, in the world of the Great Depression, makes a “very good” start for a musical, said David Gross.
Fifth place is taken by Universal’s Minions & Monsters, with another $9.6 million, for a worldwide total of $411 million.
The rest of the top 10 includes The Invitation ($2.64 million), Evil Dead Burn ($2.61 million), Young Washington ($2 million), Motor City ($1.6 million) and Obsession ($1.5 million).
“Once or twice a year, a film gets a big start and then stays on screen for weeks and weeks (…) The Odyssey shows this potential, and Christopher Nolan has already done it before,” added David Gross.
