Director Christopher Nolan's epic film The Odyssey has become the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time after taking in over $1.352 billion worldwide.
The milestone pushes the motion picture past the previous record of $1.338 billion set two years ago by Deadpool & Wolverine, when adjusted for inflation.
Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds acknowledged the milestone in a post on social media platform X, sharing clips of both films to congratulate the filmmakers. "Congratulations to the entire cast and crew of The Odyssey for becoming the highest grossing R-rated movie of all time," Reynolds wrote.
Prior to the box office runs of The Odyssey and Deadpool & Wolverine, the only R-rated film to surpass the $1 billion milestone globally was the 2019 thriller Joker. R-rated films under the Motion Picture Association rating system restrict access to viewers under 17 unless accompanied by a parent or adult guardian, which historically limited total box office audience reach.
Box office earnings and runtime
The Odyssey originally opened in theaters on July 17, collecting more than $123 million during its opening weekend at the domestic box office. In just over a month since its release, the film, which runs for two hours and 52 minutes, has accumulated $516 million in domestic box office sales and $835 million in international markets.
The motion picture features an ensemble cast led by Matt Damon and Zendaya, alongside Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Travis Scott, Jon Bernthal, and Robert Pattinson. Holland plays the role of Telemachus in the hit film. In classical mythology and Homer's Greek epic poem, Telemachus is the son of Odysseus and Penelope who searches for his missing father following the Trojan War.
Nolan personal records and Imax success
The performance marks the highest-grossing release of Nolan's career, eclipsing his previous personal best of $1.08 billion set by The Dark Knight Rises in 2012, unadjusted for inflation. The British-American filmmaker has previously directed major global blockbusters including 2008's superhero film The Dark Knight, which took $1 billion worldwide, and 2023's biographical drama Oppenheimer, which brought in $975 million.
A major portion of the global earnings for The Odyssey has come from premium visual formats, with the motion picture generating $354 million from Imax screenings alone. That total breaks the previous Imax revenue record of $271 million established by James Cameron's 2009 sci-fi blockbuster Avatar, unadjusted for inflation.
According to The Wrap, more than $40 million of that Imax total was generated from just 41 movie theaters displaying the film on Imax 70mm. Screenings on the premium platform remain sold out through next month. The Odyssey is also the first-ever feature film shot exclusively with Imax cameras. Traditional digital projection displays movies using electronic video files, whereas 70mm Imax film utilizes physical large-format film stock to project images at unmatched resolution.
Global expansion and studio benchmarks
Box office tracking projects the film to surpass $1.6 billion in total earnings after recently arriving in theaters in China and South Korea, with a release in Japan slated for next month, according to The Wrap. Should the motion picture cross $1.67 billion globally, it will overtake the $1,671,537,444 total achieved by Jurassic World in 2015 to become the highest-grossing film of all time for Universal Pictures, unadjusted for inflation.
Universal Pictures, founded in 1912, is one of Hollywood's major legacy studios and operates under Comcast's NBCUniversal division. Jurassic World was directed by Colin Trevorrow and stood for over a decade as Universal's top earner. The Odyssey currently ranks as the year's second highest-grossing motion picture worldwide.
The top spot for the year belongs to Sony and Marvel's Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which has earned $2.04 billion globally since its July 29 release. The superhero feature, which also stars Holland, Zendaya, and Bernthal, achieved another financial feat this week by becoming the fastest film to surpass $800 million in domestic box office revenue, Deadline reported. The movie has taken in $810,432,089 domestically and $1.236 billion in international markets.
The Daily Mail has reached out to representatives for Nolan for further comment on the story.
