EXCLUSIVE: Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey continues to dominate the box office, fueling a Monday that’s estimated to be $17.5 million.
If those figures stick, that will be the best Monday year-to-date in the U.S./Canada, besting Toy Story 5‘s $17.3M Monday on June 22 as well as that of the highest-grossing live-action pic so far in 2026, which was Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu‘s Memorial Day Monday of $16.4M.
Among Nolan movies on a Monday, The Odyssey ranks third behind The Dark Knight ($24.4M, July 21, 2008) and The Dark Knight Rises ($19.3M, July 23, 2012). Oppenheimer‘s first Monday minted $12.67M.
Look around, and Imax seats are hard to grab in the box office capitals of Los Angeles and New York City. TCL’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard (the pic’s highest-grossing theater over the weekend with $523,000, not to mention the venue’s biggest opening weekend of all time beating Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ $455K) has hardly any seats available for the 7 p.m. Imax 70MM show tonight in the main theater, while the 10:55 p.m. show has the first two rows open.
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Over at AMC Lincoln Center in NYC it’s a similar scenario, with sellouts or near sellouts in Imax auditoriums. At Regal’s shiny, revamped Sherman Oaks Galleria, Imax seats are also hard to get tonight, but their luxurious RPX Barco No. 1 auditorium has plenty of seats available at the time of this post for both the 5:45 p.m. and 9:40 p.m. shows.
The running cume through four days for Nolan’s take on Homer’s epic poem stands at $141M domestic, 48% higher than 2023’s Oppenheimer over its Friday-Monday; that multi-Oscar-winning movie ended its North American run at $330M. Odyssey‘s 3-day came in slightly lower (but still holding the record for the best live-action pic opening this year for North America) at $123.5M, versus the reported $124.5M. International was higher at $140.2M, versus the reported $139.6M, putting the global debut at $263.7M, still the best that Nolan has seen in his career, ahead of the global opening and foreign start for 2012’s Dark Knight Rises ($249M worldwide).
Estimates tonight come from sources. Universal didn’t respond to request for comment.