The Odyssey is officially a box office megahit. While it opened extremely well last weekend, there was plenty of speculation about how it would perform in its second frame. Most movies that debut north of $100 million suffer declines in the 50–60% range, but The Odyssey slipped just 30%, grossing an incredible $87 million this weekend—more than we predicted.
The Odyssey closes in on $300 million domestically
With a running domestic total of $286 million, The Odyssey is now on its way to earning at least $400 million. At minimum, it should become Nolan’s highest-grossing movie outside of his Batman sequels. It’s also possible that its final total could surpass the $448 million earned by The Dark Knight Rises. Topping The Dark Knight’s $534 million haul seems like a tall order—but it’s no longer impossible.
As strongly as Nolan’s film is performing, another would-be blockbuster is tanking. Disney’s Moana earned a weak $10.5 million this weekend, bringing its domestic total to a brutal $102 million. For comparison’s sake, it cost approximately $250 million—the same as The Odyssey. It now looks likely to lose hundreds of millions of dollars for Disney, potentially prompting the studio to rethink its live-action remakes of animated classics.
There is a silver lining for Disney, however: Toy Story 5 earned another $10 million this weekend, bringing its massive domestic total to $448 million and making it the highest-grossing movie of the year.
Hadestown delivers a surprise box office performance
Number four at the box office was a major surprise. The limited five-night run of Hadestown: The Musical, a filmed version of the stage production, grossed an impressive $9.69 million. Minions & Monsters wasn’t far behind with $9.6 million and a $155 million domestic total. That’s low for the franchise, but the movie should still turn a healthy profit.
A24’s The Invite, directed by Olivia Wilde, hasn’t caught on in a major way, with its box office performance proving decent but unspectacular. It earned another $2.63 million this weekend as it closed in on $20 million domestically. It nearly tied with Evil Dead Burn, which has turned out to be a rare horror misfire, earning $2.6 million for a $29 million total. It’s still a great movie worth seeing, though.
Angel Studios’ Young Washington didn’t catch on the way Sound of Freedom did, but with a $1.9 million weekend and a $44 million domestic total, its performance isn’t bad.
Motor City and Her Private Hell flop
But what about this weekend’s two new releases—the Alan Ritchson-led Motor City and Nicolas Winding Refn’s Her Private Hell? Both flopped.
Motor City earned only $1.6 million, with its dialogue-free concept perhaps proving a little too unusual for mainstream audiences. Studios try this kind of experiment every once in a while, and it rarely works financially. Her Private Hell was even more disastrous, earning just $530,000 from 675 theaters for a per-screen average of only $785. Ouch.
Both were easily beaten by Obsession, which earned another $1.5 million toward its magnificent $261 million domestic total.
Next weekend should be absolute box office bedlam, with Marvel’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day looking likely to deliver the year’s biggest opening. Will The Odyssey continue to hold up against such major competition? Let us know in the comments.
| # | MOVIE TITLE | WKND $ | TOTAL $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Odyssey | $87 M | $286.3 M |
| 2 | Moana | $10.5 M | $102.5 M |
| 3 | Toy Story 5 | $10 M | $448.5 M |
| 4 | Hadestown: The Musical | $9.7 M | $9.7 M |
| 5 | Minions & Monsters | $9.6 M | $155.4 M |
| 6 | The Invite | $2.64 M | $19.8 M |
| 7 | Evil Dead Burn | $2.61 M | $29.2 M |
| 8 | Young Washington | $1.9 M | $44.9 M |
| 9 | Motor City | $1.62 M | $1.62 M |
| 10 | Obsession | $1.5 M | $261.4 M |
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