The Odyssey has taken down another Disney billion-dollar hit — Nolan hasn't had one of these since 2012
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has hit a fresh global milestone, nudging past a Disney animated heavyweight and tightening its grip on the year’s box-office top tier.
Christopher Nolan does love a grand project, and with The Odyssey, he seems to have delivered the lot. Not only does this epic adaptation of Homer’s classic continue to draw in crowds months after release, it's now climbed past another of Disney’s money printers on the charts. Yes, another Disney crown has tumbled, and Nolan’s off on his own victory lap.
The Odyssey's box office now sits at $1.72 billion worldwide.
The film hit cinemas on 17 July 2026 and has steadily raked in the cash. In total, $609.8 million came from US and Canadian moviegoers, which shakes out to about 35% of the total haul. The rest—an eye-watering $1.11 billion—turned up from international audiences. Clearly, ancient Greeks are a global concern. These numbers push The Odyssey ahead of Inside Out 2, which had itself been the highest-grossing animated film made in Hollywood (raking in about $1.46 billion, hardly loose change).
That's a big deal for Nolan: Inside Out 2 wasn’t just the top pup at Disney; it had the top spot for all Hollywood animation, full stop. The only animated film worldwide to have done better is, oddly enough, Ne Zha 2 from China. In simpler terms, The Odyssey has left the Disney-Pixar blockbuster in its wake—another one for the Nolan shelf.
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Box office run: a quick recap
- The Odyssey crossed the $1 billion mark worldwide in just under three weeks.
- That's a first for Nolan since The Dark Knight Rises back in 2012. This is only his second film to hit the billion-dollar mark.
- The rapid climb got an extra boost from its China debut in mid-August, plus strong legs on IMAX and big-format screens.
If Nolan needed a blockbuster for his cast’s CVs, he certainly delivered. Matt Damon stars as Odysseus, joined by Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Charlize Theron, and Lupita Nyong'o. For Damon, Hathaway, and Pattinson, it’s already the highest-grossing release of their respective careers, which is saying something given the films those three have fronted through the years.