Weeks after The Odyssey topped $1 billion at the global box office to become director and writer Christopher Nolan‘s highest-grossing movie ever, the Matt Damon-led, silver-screen adaptation of Homer’s 3,000-year-old poem has become the most highest-grossing ever released by Universal Pictures. The Odyssey just surpassed $1.677 billion at the global box office to overtake 2015’s Jurassic World for the studio record.
The Odyssey‘s theatrical run has been truly epic from the jump. The star-studded film opened at No. 1 worldwide and held that position for its first two weeks, becoming Nolan’s best opener ahead of The Dark Knight Rises, the third installment in his Christian Bale-led Batman trilogy. It also set records for the biggest opening weekend for IMAX 70MM domestically, the biggest Universal R-rated opening weekend domestically, and the biggest opening weekend for a Best Director follow-up film domestically.
The Odyssey broke other cumulative records, including the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time and the highest-grossing IMAX film. It is also the first non-sequel, non-remake movie to gross over $1 billion internationally since 2009, and it ranks as the second-highest-grossing film of the year so far. It continues to buck box office trends at every turn, having recently returned to the No. 1 position globally in its eighth weekend before finally dropping to No. 3 in its ninth, behind Spider-Man: Brand New Day and the newly debuted Practical Magic 2.
Naturally, The Odyssey is an early frontrunner to win Best Picture at the 2027 Academy Awards. Variety‘s Awards Circuit section notes that the top contender for the Oscars’ most prestigious annual prize, Dune: Part Three, isn’t due out until December, and with the Toronto International Film Festival currently underway, a sweep of the People’s Choice Award could push less obvious picks higher in the rankings. Among the under-the-radar selections are A24’s The Debut—a theater-set drama directed by Jesse Eisenberg and starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti—and Netflix’s La Bola Negra, a Penélope Cruz-led, Spanish-language musical drama that premiered at Cannes.
Rounding out the list, Olivia Wilde’s A24 release The Invite premiered at Sundance and currently holds a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes, while Martin McDonagh’s melancholy 1970s-set caper Wild Horse Nine stars Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich and has drawn strong reviews for the writer-director. Wildwood marks LAIKA’s first stop-motion feature in seven years, bringing the studio back with a sweeping animated adventure based on Colin Meloy’s fantasy novel, and Project Hail Mary, the big-budget sci-fi adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel starring Ryan Gosling, already had a successful theater run and found later streaming success.
At the moment, Variety currently predicts The Odyssey will receive the most nomination at the Oscars (15), followed by Dune: Part Three (12); The Debut and La Bola Negra (7); The Invite, Wild Horse Nine and Wildwood (6); Project Hail Mary (5). However, the outlet predicts that Dune is most likely to win the coveted Best Picture award.
Preliminary voting for the Oscars shortlist in 12 categories runs December 7-11, with the shortlist announcement arriving Tuesday, December 15. Following the close of the eligibility period on December 31, 2026, the official Oscar nominations will be announced on January 21, 2027.