MONDAY AM: Sunday went into over-drive for not just Universal’s The Odyssey which posted a higher second frame of $90M but also Bleecker Street/Crooswalk & LD Entertainment’s Broadway feature capture of Hadestown which filed in at $10.243M. The latter not only beats the opening of Disney’s Hamilton as the biggest Broadway stage capture feature pic ($10.1M), but it’s also a record opening for Bleecker Street, beating the $7.6M start of Steven Soderbergh’s 2017 NASCAR movie, Logan Lucky starring Adam Driver and Daniel Craig.
Among second weekends, Odyssey ties with Top Gun:Maverick‘s $90M second weekend in the 12th spot on the all time list of best sophomore frames. As we told you, Odyssey also owns the second second best weekend ever for a R-rated movie behind Deadpool & Wolverine ($96M).
Odyssey was suppose to come in with $26.6M yesterday, but rose to $29.78M, just -14% off from Saturday. Wowza. Running cume domestic is $289.3M. Despite Sony/Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: Brand New Day coming in with an opening around $200M+, Universal keeps the Imax screens.
Meanwhile, there’s a love for Hadestown on the big screen with exhibitors reporting repeat viewing to Bleecker Street. Sunday was forecasted at $2.5M yesterday and as of this AM it came in with $3M. Pic’s revised weekend moves it to No. 3 spot ahead of Toy Story 5.
The overall weekend per sources stands around $148.2M, -20% from a year ago. Rentrak reports that 2026 running box office for Jan. 1-July 26 stands at $5.7 billion, +10% from the same period a year ago. The theatrical motion picture industry is healthy.
SUNDAY AM WRITETHRU: Universal’s The Odyssey remained muscular after a near $26M Friday and $34.6M Saturday, posting Christopher Nolan’s best second weekend ever at the domestic box office with $87M.
That’s also, as we told you before the weekend got underway, the best second weekend for a R-rated movie after Deadpool & Wolverine ($96.8M) and ahead of It‘s second frame ($60.1M). The Odyssey is already Universal’s second highest grossing R-rated movie after Nolan’s Oppenheimer ($330M) and ahead of Ted ($218.8M).
With a running a domestic total of $286.3M, The Odyssey became the highest grossing R-Rated movie of the year, ahead of Curry Barker’s Obsession ($259.8M).
Global for the Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, John Leguziamo, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron vehicle stands at $639.6M after a massive second global frame of $215.3M. Meanwhile, Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 5 crossed $1 billion, becoming the highest grossing movie of the year with $1.022B ahead of Super Mario Galaxy Movie ($1.011B) and Michael ($1.01B).
All enhanced formats — Imax, PLFs and 70MM — drove 57% of Odyssey‘s second weekend. That’s a greater percentile share than last weekend’s 53%.
Broken out we have Imax at 27% (5% from Imax 70MM and 22% digital), with PLFs at 19% (Dolby reps 4% of that figure). Of the 34 Imax 70MM screens this weekend, the top six so far are the TCL Chinese Theatre (with a massive $254K through EOD Saturday), Regal LA Live ($159K), Regal Irvine Spectrum ($146K) in Orange County, then Regal Opry Mills ($135K) in Nashville, AMC Lincoln Square NYC ($127K) and Regal UA Colorado Center in Denver ($121,6K). Top grossing pure 70MM theatre is the Alex Theatre in Glendale, CA ($83K) with the top grossing 35MM theater for the Nolan pic coming from Nitehawk Cinema in Prospect Park in NYC.
Speaking of the TCL Chinese Theatre, we hear that when it comes to actual sales plus pre-sales (through week 5), The Odyssey has become the all-time best grossing movie at the historic venue with $2.48M, topping Oppenheimer‘s run which counted $2.38M.
The takeaway here for the industry (specifically filmmakers and reps who prod studios to boost their theater counts), is that a minority of screens are driving the majority of a tentpole’s gross. A movie doesn’t need a massive 4,000-plus footprint to rake in a ton.
This weekend, The Odyssey is over indexing in the Northeast, West and most of Canada. Top markets were L.A., NYC, San Fran, Dallas, Toronto, DC, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, and Seattle. AMC rang up 26% of the weekend ($15.2M so far), Regal close to 20% ($11.6M), and Cinemark 12.7% ($7.4M).
Guys are still dominant at 52% in weekend 2 according to Screen Engine/Rentrak’s PostTrak, but a little less so versus pic’s opening weekend where dudes repped 59%. The over-25 crowd remains consistent at 76% with half of the audience being 18-34. Definite recommend scores are still high with men at 84% and women at 82%.
Among the new stuff that’s counter programming, Bleecker Street’s Crosswalk and LD release of Broadway capture Hadestown is the best with $9.69M opening at 1,949 sites, which is the second biggest ever Broadway live capture pic opening after Disney’s Hamilton last September ($10.1M). That’s without any PLF screens. The pic played best in East, South, Midwest and Mountain with the AMC Dine-In Disney Springs in Florida the top-grossing theater with $25K+. Hadestown originally was set to play a five night only event, but now Bleecker is adding additional bookings and showtimes. This past week it was announced that Crosswalk and LD are doing George Michael: The Faith Tour which is debuting later this year in Imax.
IFC’s noir Motor City pulled in an estimated $850K on Friday (including previews) and went to $471K on Saturday resulting in a $1.625M opening at 1,600 for the distrib’s TIFF acquisition. Rotten Tomatoes audience score on the avant garde film is 64%, not far from its 66% fresh critics score. This is a really clever innovative noir. Hopefully more audiences can find it.
Neon’s Nicolas Winding Refn movie, Her Private Hell, did $270K on Friday (including Thursday previews) and then $105K on Saturday, for a $530K opening outside the top 10 at 670 locales. That start is just under Refn’s last film, 2016’s Neon Demon, starring Elle Fanning which debuted to $589K at 783 theaters and ended its run at $1.3M, that Amazon theatrical release distributed by the late Broad Green Pictures (this was back in the day when Amazon didn’t have a theatrical distribution arm). Refn has been working it, tub thumping his first movie in ten years. How’s that? “I fell down a rabbit hole with streaming,” he says in the IG post below, while emphasizing “polarization is success.”
In addition, the Her Private Hell cast — Sophie Thatcher, 2x Emmy nominee Charles Melton and Havana Rose Liu — has been out there doing interviews since Cannes. One of the mega takeaways from the movie is its classical score from 85-year old Italian composer Pino Donaggio who worked on several Brain De Palma films. No RT audience score.
No CinemaScores or PostTrak audience exits for Hadestown, Her Private Hell or Motor City.
The overall three-day marketplace in North America sans a major studio wide entry stands around $140.6M, -25% off from a year ago, when Disney/Marvel Studio’s opened Fantastic Four: First Steps.
11. Jana Nayagan (PMP) 415 theaters, Fri $260K Sat $280K Sun $200K 3-day $740K/Total $1.35M/Wk 1 The movie in Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu is posting big numbers in Toronto, Seattle, Vancouver, Dallas, NYC and Austin. The H. Vinoth directed and written action movie stars Joseph Vijay and follows ideological enemies — one a populist, another an authoritarian–who meet again after a child’s fear awakens old conflicts, and pulls an ex-cop into a struggle beyond vengeance.
Her Private Hell (NEON) 675 theaters, Fri $275K, Sat $150K, Sun $105K, 3-day $530K/Wk.
UPDATED, FRIDAY PM: Well, it is clear the weekdays showed how much of a driving force Universal’s The Odyssey would be, and the feature take of Homer’s epic poem is headed for a second frame of $84.5 million, the best a Christopher Nolan film has ever seen. If that estimate holds, it will top his previous second-weekend high, for 2008’s The Dark Knight ($75.1M). Some rivals today believe the movie can even hit $90M.
Among R-rated movies, The Odyssey is currently bound for the second-best second weekend ever behind Deadpool & Wolverine‘s $96.8M in 2024.
The theater count for The Odyssey moves to 3,942, up by 23, with a second-frame dip of 32%. Pic’s second Friday is $26M.
In second place this weekend will be Disney’s Moana with a third Friday of $3M, a third weekend around $10M, -44%, at 4,015 sites. That will get the Dwayne Johnson live-action take of the 2016 animated pic across the century mark by end of Sunday.
Third is Disney/Pixar’s sixth weekend of Toy Story 5 with around $9.4M at 3,375, -31%, and a running cume of $447.9M by Sunday. Today is looking like $2.8M.
Fourth goes to Minions & Monsters from Illumination/Universal at 3,386 theaters. It is looking at a Friday of $2.7M, a fourth frame of $9M, -34%, and a running total of $154.7M.
Bleecker Street’s Crosswalk and LD Entertainment’s Hadestown is in fifth with about $3.5M and an opening between $7.5M-$9M at 1,949 locations. These event movies are known to be front-loaded.
PREVIOUSLY, FRIDAY AM: It’s been double-digit millions every day for Universal’s Christopher Nolan movie The Odyssey, which after a $17.6 million Thursday — a remarkably slim 3% dip from Wednesday’s $18M — ends its first week at the North American box office with $199.3M at 3,919 theaters.
Among Nolan movies in their first week, The Odyssey (similar to its $123.5M weekend opening) is third behind The Dark Knight ($238.6M) and The Dark Knight Rises ($225M) and ahead of Oppenheimer ($127.8M) and Inception ($100.1M). The second-weekend outlook for Odyssey is between $61M-$74M, but it’s clear from the weekday grosses that this Matt Damon movie has momentum. Nolan’s biggest second weekend at the domestic box office to date belongs to Dark Knight ($75.1M).
Specialty titles are serving as counterprogramming this weekend, with the Broadway live feature capture of Hadestown from Bleecker Street’s event cinema division Crosswalk and LD Entertainment making $1.5M in previews Thursday. Very good. Opening range for the event pic is $8M-$10M, and critics are currently 100% on Rotten Tomatoes with audiences at 99%.
The movie is on track to have the second-highest opening weekend for a Broadway capture behind only Disney’s Hamilton ($10.1M), which was released following its Disney+ debut during Covid on September 5 last year.
IFC’s Potsy Ponciroli’s gritty, R-rated dialogue-less crime noir Motor City revved up with $475,000 in overall previews that include Thursday night screenings and Monday mystery screenings. That’s a great number for IFC, right there in between the previews for Late Night With the Devil ($317K previews, $2.8M opening) and Clown in a Cornfield ($600K previews, $3.6M opening). The hope is for walk-up business on this pic starring Alan Ritchson, Shailene Woodley and Ben Foster, which was great last night at 65%. Critics are at 65% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
RELATED: ‘Motor City’ Review: Potsy Ponciroli’s Dialogue-Lite Thriller Is A Dazzling Demonstration Of Genre-Movie Pyrotechnics – Venice Film Festival
Neon’s Nicolas Winding Refn-directed fashionista genre kung-fu noir Her Private Hell starring Sophie Thatcher and Beef Emmy nominee Charles Melton grossed $125K in previews. Refn is in L.A. all weekend doing Q&As for the film, as well as following a 10 p.m. show tonight at the American Cinematheque for the 15th anniversary of Drive; there was an L.A. premiere on Tuesday night with Thatcher, Melton and Havana Rose Liu.
RELATED: ‘Her Private Hell’ Review: Pino Donaggio’s Score Is The Secret Sauce In Nicolas Winding Refn’s Trippy Return To Cinema – Cannes Film Festival
Following the movie’s out-of-competition premiere in Cannes, Refn took the movie on the road for advance screenings in L.A., NYC and Chicago. It’s the third time he’s teamed with Neon’s Tom Quinn, who handled Refn’s Only God Forgives starring Ryan Gosling at Radius as well as the Pusher movies at Magnolia. Critical score on Her Private Hell is 45% rotten. Mubi has a majority of overseas on the pic which cost in the mid-single-digits before P&A.
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And Elon Musk wants to pay $100mil for Mel Gibson to make a “proper accurate” version of the Oddysey. TBH, I hope he tries.
LMAO at the people who think it’s some kind of strike against THE ODYSSEY that a three-hour R-rated movie based on classic literature may not make quite as much as a few all-ages two-hour movies based on hugely popular modern IP.
Nolan arguably stands alone at this point in being a director who acts as truly his own selling point on the same level as a major IP.
And I think in this case the source material effectively acts basically as a force multiplier for the Nolan brand – “what will he do with a story THIS big?” was the hype angle from the moment the IMAX pre-sales started ridiculously far in advance.
1. Deadpool & Wolverine – $96,809,328 (-54,2% drop) / OP: $211,435,291
2. The Odyssey – $87,000,000 (-30% drop) / OP: $123,502,900
3. American Sniper – $64,628,304 (-27,6% drop) / OP: $89,269,066
4. IT – $60,103,110 (-51,3% drop) / OP: $123,403,419
5. Deadpool – $56,470,167 (-57,4% drop) / OP: $132,434,639
6. Joker – $55,861,403 (-41,9% drop) / OP: $96,202,337
7. The Passion Of The Christ – $53,246,801 (-36,5% drop) / OP: $83,848,082
8. Oppenheimer – $46,705,630 (-43,4% drop) / OP: $82,455,420
9. Sinners – $45,708,664 (-4,8% drop) / OP: $48,007,468
10. Deadpool 2 – $43,463,043 (-65.4% drop) / OP: $125,507,153
The amount of repeat viewing needed for this to leg out 900-1 bn is massive. People posting pics on socials of empty theaters, but sold out/heavily sold.
I hear people are showing up early to screenings of THE ODYSSEY to take pictures of all the “empty seats” before the bulk of the audience has arrived.
It needs to beat Michael’s $1B by next weekend to be truly a hit otherwise Nolan fell off and it’s obvious there is no interest in the Odyssey.
J/K but you know there are people out there coming up with new excuses every weekend to avoid taking the L on their opinions of the Odyssey’s BO. 😄
The goal of this film was to make or exceed $1b, which is still questionable at this point. But you sound like you have some culture war win in mind, which is even more questionable at this point.
The financial goal of the film was to make a profit – and that doesnt require $1B – it will already be in profit by $750-800M, which is where it will be in one week. if it hits a billion, which is looking more and more likely every single day, then it will have made a significant profit, before hitting the home market, where a film like this will do very well. If you are genuinely under the belief that this film is struggling in anyway, then you really need to take a breather, stop, and think about why you’re so stuck on this idea. Its past the point of having any logic.
If the movie exceeds a billion dollars, will that finally keep you quiet? Or will you find another excuse?
“culture war win in mind”? Sounds like someone is projecting.