Heading into this year, Batman topped Christopher Nolan’s personal box office charts. While the director has established himself as a massive draw regardless of subject matter, it wasn’t surprising to see the Caped Crusader leading the way. Not only has Batman been popular since long before the superhero movie boom of the 21st century, Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy earned widespread critical praise and helped revolutionize the film industry. That combination made titles like The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises the ones to beat in Nolan’s filmography, and they stood firm in their No. 1 positions for many years. But now, The Odyssey has cemented its place as Nolan’s top earner.
According to Deadline, The Odyssey earned $19.5 million domestically in its sixth weekend, raising its total to $539 million. That’s enough to surpass The Dark Knight ($534.9 million) as Nolan’s highest-grossing movie in North America. The Odyssey has already beaten The Dark Knight Rises to become Nolan’s highest-grossing film worldwide. It’s the No. 1 R-rated movie of all time, and one of only three R-rated movies to hit $1 billion.
The Odyssey may have topped Deadpool & Wolverine to become the biggest R-rated movie at the worldwide box office, but the Merc with a Mouth still holds the domestic crown. Deadpool & Wolverine earned $636.7 million domestically two years ago. With this week’s gross factored in, The Odyssey is roughly $97.7 million behind. Considering how much the film has made already, that could seem like chump change, but it might be too large a gap for The Odyssey to clear. Deadline notes that “the end game” for the fantasy epic is $575 million domestically, meaning the outlet sees business slowing down over the next few weeks.
It’s possible The Odyssey will outperform that tracking. Box office predictions are not an exact science, and The Odyssey has been exceeding estimates from the jump. It honestly wouldn’t be a shock to see it pass Deadpool & Wolverine domestically, but it has its work cut out for it on that front. Remember, we are looking strictly at the domestic box office here. Whatever The Odyssey makes internationally won’t have any impact. On Friday, August 14th, The Odyssey‘s domestic total stood at $487.9 million. On Friday, August 21st, the number had increased to $524.5 million. That means it earned $36.6 million over the course of that week. The Odyssey would need to earn exactly that much over the next three weeks to move past Deadpool & Wolverine domestically.
Again, that’s plausible, but it isn’t realistic to pencil The Odyssey into that No. 1 spot. It’s simply natural for a movie — especially a high-profile summer tentpole like The Odyssey — to earn less on a daily basis the longer its theatrical run goes on. The Odyssey has followed this typical trajectory. From August 7-14, it made about $49.4 million, nearly $13 million more than it made during the aforementioned August 14-21 stretch. It stands reason to believe over the coming week that The Odyssey will make under $36.6 million. Its weekly total could even drop into the $20 million range. Should that happen, its odds of beating Deadpool & Wolverine in the U.S. will decrease further.
Of course, there’s always the possibility The Odyssey will receive some sort of theatrical re-release as Universal mounts what’s sure to be an aggressive Oscar campaign for Nolan’s blockbuster. If the film returns to the big screen to celebrate any nominations it receives, that could push the domestic total beyond Deadpool & Wolverine. For the time being, however, The Odyssey may have to “settle” for second place in this race. With business starting to slow down a bit and the film’s home media release date set, it may have broken the last of its box office records.
