Homer’s Odyssey epic has broken opening weekend takings, according to the film’s distributors.
Director Christopher Nolan’s IMAX adaptation of the ancient Greek epic earned $13.4 million on its debut nationwide and attracted over 587,000 movie fans from Thursday to Sunday, July 16-19.
HOYTS says the film’s release on July 16 was its highest grossing opening for a Thursday this year with $2.36m; this was $820,000 more than Oppenheimer ($1.54m) on its opening day in 2023 and which went on to gross $42.6m.
The group’s CEO Damian Keogh says The Odyssey could become the biggest release of the year.
He says the film is a “truly cinematic event that captivated audiences and driven their “most successful weekend of 2026 to date”.
“It’s fantastic to see such outstanding results … the strong admissions we’ve seen across these experiences demonstrate the continued demand from movie fans to enjoy blockbusters like this on the best screens possible.”
ODYSSEY OPENS WELL
The distributor says the film, starring Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway and Tom Holland (among others), scored a 95% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes (and 97% with fans).
It says this makes it the highest-rated Nolan film with Memento at 94% and Oppenheimer at 93%.
Hoyts says its box office revenue is up 17% so far in 2026 compared to 2025.
TOP YEAR: The top performer this year at the Australian box office is the Michael Jackson bio-musical picture Michael ($46.4m) then Toy Story 5 ($42.4m) and The Devil Wears Prada 2 ($41.9m). Click here for more details
Monash University film academic Professor Olivia Khoo says movies like The Odyssey are giving people reason to choose cinemas over streaming.
(Imax Melbourne is the only cinema in the southern hemisphere capable of showing the 1570 reel of The Odyssey).
“Despite having numerous streaming options at home, cinema in large-format, immersive environments like IMAX cannot be replicated at home,” she says.
“Nolan is unapologetic about championing cinema as a unique art form; only 41 cinemas worldwide can project The Odyssey in the way Nolan intended, maximising the detail of 70mm IMAX film prints.
“The only one of these cinemas in the Southern Hemisphere is IMAX Melbourne,” prof Khoo says.
“There is certainly an aspect of FOMO (fear of missing out) when it comes to major cultural events; the same is true of The Odyssey, with tickets sold out well in advance of the release date across the opening weekends.”
THE SOURCE MATERIAL
The Odyssey is an ancient Greek epic poem composed by the philosopher, Homer, around the 8th–7th Century BC, blending myth, oral tradition and fragments of history such as the real city of Troy into a largely fictional story. Click here to learn more.
OTHER FILM STORIES: Oppenheimer sweeps the Oscars
