Christopher Nolan's mythic action epic adapted from Homer's Odyssey, starring Matt Damon as Odysseus.
The Odyssey has now made more than $1 billion without counting North America. For a nearly three-hour Homer adaptation without a sequel number, superhero logo or decades-old movie franchise attached to the title, that is an unusual box-office milestone.
The Odyssey opened on July 17. By ordinary blockbuster logic, its rarest premium screens should now be moving on. Instead, IMAX has added more 70mm film showtimes through September 30.
The Odyssey is a major American hit, but America is no longer the most interesting part of its box-office story. Six weekends into release, more than $900 million has come from international markets.
For The Odyssey, IMAX was never an optional premium badge added at release. It was part of the production, the marketing and even the advance-ticket strategy. Four weekends were enough for that approach to produce the biggest global gross in IMAX history.
The Odyssey is not Homer preserved behind glass. Nolan condenses, rearranges and psychologizes the poem around one of his most familiar concerns: what happens to a brilliant man after his ingenuity produces terrible consequences. Some of Homer’s strangeness is lost in the process, but the film gains an exceptional physical presence. Ships, seas, monsters and ruined cities seem to occupy the same world as the actors. Matt Damon gives that immensity an imperfect human center strong enough to keep the film from becoming a three-hour IMAX demonstration.
