Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has made a record-breaking debut at the Australian box office, delivering the biggest opening weekend for a film so far this year.
Across its Thursday to Sunday opening weekend, the film delivered 587,000 admissions and opened to an impressive $13.5 million across Australia, marking the biggest opening weekend since A Minecraft Movie, which released in April last year.
The Odyssey took US$264 million worldwide in its opening weekend, the biggest global opening of Christopher Nolan’s career and the second biggest IMAX opening ever, behind only Avengers: Endgame.
“The record-breaking opening of The Odyssey serves to reinforce the continued strength of Cinema in delivering huge cultural moments, with audiences actively seeking out quality premium content and the best immersive viewing experiences,” said Val Morgan Cinema managing director Guy Burbidge.
“Not only has the film delivered the biggest opening of the year, but you will be lucky to get a ticket at some screens until mid-August. What’s also been fascinating to see is the cultural conversation extending well beyond the box office, with audiences taking to social media with tongue-in-cheek posts about watching the film ‘as Nolan intended’.”
The opening of The Odyssey helped drive a blockbuster weekend at the box office, with more than 1.21 million admissions and $24 million in box office revenue delivered across Australian cinemas. It was the biggest box office weekend and highest admissions result of 2026 to date, and the strongest weekend since Superman opened in July 2025. The result was supported by a strong line-up of titles including Moana, Minions and Monsters, Toy Story 5, and The Invite.
“We’ve consistently talked about Cinema’s ability to drive cultural moments and talkability for brands, and this is just another great example of a key media moment that we know delivers great brand outcomes,” Burbidge added.
