EXCLUSIVE: There’s absolutely no need other get these moviegoers out of here. For Universal, they’re doing perfectly well, sitting in cinemas and watching Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey. The director’s highest grossing movie ever at $1.59 billion worldwide has crossed another milestone, and that’s that it has become the 17th movie to surpass $1 billion at the international box office.

But what sets this $1 billion-plus grossing pic apart at the overseas B.O. is that it’s the first Hollywood non-sequel and non-remake to achieve this threshold since 2009’s Avatar.

Through yesterday abroad, the Matt Damon-Anne Hathaway-Robert Pattinson-John Leguziamo-Tom Holland-Jon Bernthal epic counts $1.014 billion in international territories.

“From its record-breaking opening to this historic milestone, The Odyssey has captivated audiences around the world,” said Universal Pictures International’s president of distribution Veronika Kwan Vandenberg. “We are incredibly proud to have partnered with Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas and everyone at Syncopy to share this visionary theatrical experience with audiences everywhere.”

The pic’s top ten markets include UK & Ireland ($109.2M), China ($92.7M), France ($84.6M), Korea ($74M), Italy ($63.2M), Germany ($57.5M), Australia ($43M), Spain ($41M), Mexico ($37.3M) and India ($23.5M).

The Odyssey opened to $264.1M at the global box office, the biggest start ever for Nolan ahead of 2008’s Dark Knight Rises. The feature take of Homer’s poem had an international opening of $139.6M which was also the director’s biggest international opening ever ahead of Oppenheimer and The Dark Knight Rises in like-for-like markets.

The Odyssey claimed the biggest ever Nolan opening in 52 markets (including Brazil, France, Italy, India, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, and Spain), and the movie is the biggest ever Nolan title in 75 markets (including Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, India, Korea, Mexico, Spain, and The UK & Ireland).

Already, The Odyssey is the highest grossing film ever in Imax with more than $457M worldwide. Yesterday, the large format exhibitor announced it was extending the pic’s run in 70MM Imax auditoriums until the end of this month.

Universal is leading all major studios at the year-to-date global box office with more than $4.7 billion. They were the first studio to cross $4B at the global box office this year, and they were the first studio to cross $3B at the overseas box office.

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