‘The Odyssey’ Projected To Hit $200M Global Opening This Weekend, Totals May Reach Billion-Dollar Mark

What do they say, success speaks for itself? We’ve been overloaded with a bizarre level of online “anti-woke debates” about Christopher Nolan‘s “The Odyssey” egged on by the likes of attention-seeking right-wing folks like Elon Musk, questioning why a fantasy film based on a fictional non-historical tale (potentially written by an anonymous author attributed to “Homer” thousands of years ago) and coming off more like run-of-the-mill unserious bigots triggered by seeing POC and trans actors on the big screen rather than having a good-faith issue with “Greek history” (this story just happens to be fairytale, featuring gods, demi-gods, a magic-wielder, a giant cyclops, and other monsters) being represented.

READ MORE: Christopher Nolan Dismisses Right-Wing ‘Odyssey’ Backlash: “These Conversations… Are Always Irrelevant”

In the midsts of that noise on social media and other corners of the internet, there had been some skepticism from naysayers and knuckleheads about the movie being able to perform at the box office for close-minded reasons, there have been some recent box office reports (such as at Deadline and Variety) alongside some buzzy first reactions, that are pointing out projections for the film having a $200 million opening weekend at the global box office with $90-100 million being part of the domestic split (that number could go even higher if ticket sales outpace the estimates). As pointed out by others, this could be Nolan’s biggest opening weekend since “The Dark Knight Rises” dropped, earning $160 million back in 2012.

Also, some are under the impression that “The Odyssey” could end up hitting the billion-dollar mark, sort of potentially connecting with audiences not that dissimilar to the success of Nolan’s R-rated atomic bomb drama “Oppenheimer” (opened alongside “Barbie” but didn’t really impact ticket sales, as passionate moviegoers during Barbenheimer embraced both offerings). Hitting that box office number would be fantastic (Universal Pictures should be super happy with that start) as the film’s hefty $250 million, making it one of the most expensive R-rated releases in cinematic history, and could signal that the movie will be dominatie for the rest of the month even when “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” shows up on July 31 (notably, both movies feature Tom Holland and Zendaya).

READ MORE: July’s 12 Must-Watch Movies, From ‘The Odyssey’ To ‘Her Private Hell’ & ‘I Want Your Sex’

Matt Damon, who plays war-weary protagonist King Odysseus trying to get back to his family on his periless journey, leads a cast alongside Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Benny Safdie, Himesh Patel, Mia Goth, Elliot Page, John Leguizamo, Jon Bernthal, Corey Hawkins, Ryan Hurst, Lupita Nyong’o, Logan Marshall-Green, Will Yun Lee, Samantha Morton, and rapper Travis Scott.

“The Odyssey” is heading to theaters this week (so you should purchase tickets before screening options become harder to schedule), and The Playlist has just dropped our review with a glowing impression of the latest effort from Nolan.

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It feels like fate that Nolan would end up tackling the Greek myth after nearly helming “Troy” before Warner Bros. had him pivot to “Batman Begins” instead, we’ll keep our fingers crossed that the director considered tackling other public domain epics in the feature such as the Old English story “Beowulf,” that had been previously given the animated movie treatment by Robert Zemeicks and a published iteration of the tale was translated by J.R.R. Tolken. Then again, he might want to tackle something else entirely or take a much needed rest.