EXCLUSIVE: Universal brass confirmed on Friday (October 30) that Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has overtaken Furious 7 and surpassed $1.17bn this week to become the studio’s highest-grossing international release of all time.
“Christopher Nolan occupies rarefied air as a filmmaker whose star power transcends borders,” Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, president of distribution, Universal Pictures International, told Screen. “This historic milestone speaks to the unyielding ambition of Chris and Emma [Thomas], delivering a cinematic achievement whose scale and craftsmanship breathe life into Homer’s epic poem.”
The adaptation of Homer’s 3,000-year-old epic about Odysseus’s decade-long return from the Trojan War to his wife Penelope in Ithaca has broken multiple records, among them: Nolan’s highest international opening (it debuted at number one in 77 markets) and international cumulative total. It also ranks as the UK director’s biggest film in 78 markets including UK & Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Korea, Australia, and India.
The feature ranks as the eighth highest-grossing Hollywood film of all time, and Universal’s highest-grossing release in 45 markets including South Korea, France, Italy, Australia, The Netherlands, and India. In South Korea it ranks as the biggest Hollywood film of all time and the second biggest of all time in the market.
The Odyssey is the second highest-grossing film of 2026 internationally, behind only Spider-Man: Brand New Day. At time of writing the adventure epic had grossed the following in key territories: $118.5m in the UK & Ireland (£88.2m), $102.7m in South Korea (KRW 142.4m), $93.2m in France (€81.1m), $68.2m in Germany (€59.3m), $67.6m in Italy (€58.9m), $49.4m in Australia (AUD $70.2m), $45.2m in Spain (€39.3m), $38.6m in Mexico (Ps 668.6m), $25.9m in Brazil (BRL 132.5m), and $24.2m in India (INR 2.3bn). It has grossed $115m in China (approximately CNH 766m).
Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, and Lupita Nyong’o star. Thomas and Nolan produced through their company, Syncopy, and Thomas Hayslip served as executive producer.
Universal became the first Hollywood studio to cross $3bn at the international box office this year – it currently stands at $3.37bn, ahead of the other studios – and the first to cross $5bn worldwide.
