The Odyssey by the numbers
Autuer theory, the Wizard of the Kremlin fails to cast a spell, and the best book about Trump yet
The Odyssey. The numbers.
It earned $13.4 million across its first weekend, which is the biggest opening of the year and the highest-grossing opening weekend ever for a non-franchise film in Australia.
In its first week, it earned $18.3 million, more than half the total box office of $31 million and, by my reckoning, making it the 9th biggest film of the year already.
It was the biggest opening ever for IMAX in Australia, with $1.6 million from just 10 locations.
The IMAX locations totalled 12% of The Odyssey’s box office, those 10 screens representing less than 0.5% of the 2200+ screens in Australia.
Sessions at IMAX Sydney are 90% sold out for the next 6 weeks, as they are at most other IMAX locations.
Melbourne Museum IMAX 70mm was the highest grossing location in Australia, taking $350,000 for the weekend.
All that adds up to a renewal in Australian box office, which is tracking 17% up on 2024 and will crack $1 billion for first time since Covid. That will be the best performance in 7 years despite a number of anticipated hits - Supergirl, Moana, Disclosure Day etc - not performing to expectations.
Nevertheless, 2026 will likely to have more $40 million-plus movies than ever before (Michael, Devil Wears Prada 2, The Odyssey, Toy Story 5, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and possibly Dune 3 and/or Avengers: Endgame). The previous best was 5 in 2019. This would support the theory that audiences will go to event films, if they deliver.
Chris and Hoyte
So The Odyssey has done good. And will do good. Why? Clearly, it delivers a spectacle and some of the biggest acting names appealing to broad demographics - Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway through to Tom Holland and Zendaya. And we’re back in the habit of going to the cinema.
But a primary factor is the director, Christopher Nolan. I asked some of my students this week if they’d gone or intended to see the film and why. Nolan was a key driver. As he was for me.
Is this the re-rise of the auteur? Or at least of creative voices?
I hope so. In the week Netflix released its top movies of the first half of 2026 , many of which are algorithmically-led slop, I was amused by reporting about the lengths studios are going to seduce the 21-year-old director of Backrooms, Kane Parsons, including Warner Bros co-chairmen and CEOs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy flying to meet him near his mother’s house. Talent is back, apparently.
Nolan has earned the name recognition but even so, the prominence his brand has in both marketing and with audiences is immense. So I was intrigued to get yet another email survey invite from Cinebuzz/Event Cinemas this week.
I clicked for a giggle, and the survey was for my reactions to The Odyssey, including preferences for the story, stars, score, pacing, effects etc. But there was also a focus on Christopher Nolan for a few questions. Not individual stars. Or choc-tops.
Of course, he has the power now as THE director of this century, or for Gen X. Even so, an exhibitor asking questions about a director? Strange and hopefully better days.
excuse the poor quality screencap
btw
I’ve always liked Jamiroquai, who once did a little dance for me at 3am backstage at Glastonbury in 1995. Anyway, his 1996 clip for Virtual Insanity, directed by Jonathan Glazer remains a classic. By the by, it has a certain joie de vie Glazer’s subsequent films - Sexy Beast, Under The Skin, Birth and The Zone of Interest - defiantly lack.
Anyway, I’ll be showing my advertising students this ad, an update released this week for Beefeater Gin that is just as fun as the original.
This week’s films
The Wizard of the Kremlin (two and half stars)
This has so many appealing elements, including its director Oliver Assayas and Jude Law as Vladimir Putin, yet it’s a major disappointment.
The tale of a young Russian filmmaker (Paul Dano) who becomes an unlikely advisor to Vladimir Putin as he rises to power in post-Soviet Russia, is adapted from an apparently terrific satirical novel. The film version is produced winningly and looks the part but is bogged down in exposition and slow pacing. This is possibly the performance Quentin Tarantino saw before he sniped at Dano because it is a strikingly dull performance that’s so mannered it drags the film down. I wouldn’t go so far as to say Assayas (Personal Shopper, Irma Vep) is out of his depth outside Paris given how much I loved Carlos but he does seem at a loss to give the story an over-arching point, or energy . Earnest and aimless.
Colours of Time (unreviewed)
Another interesting French director, Cedric Klapisch (The Spanish Apartment, Russian Dolls) tells a cross-generational story linking a number of cousins meeting for an inheritance and discovering a shared 19th century ancestor.
Tenor: My Name is Pati (unreviewed)
Doco about charismatic Samoan opera star Pene Pati.
Sia: Nostalgic For The Present (unreviewed)
An extremely odd release. The enigmatic Australian, Sia, has packaged up her 2016 dance videos featuring Maddie Ziegler. Why this, why now?
40 Years of F***in’ Up (unreviewed)
A group of untalented teenage punks become NOFX. Limited screenings but they seem to be sold out.
and the best film currently in cinemas?
The Odyssey
Tour announces
Kool & The Gang and Sister Sledge have expanded their tour to Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
System Of A Down and Faith No More hinted at an Australian tour with a teaser campaign on Friday.
The Spilt Milk festival for Geelong, Canberra, Gold Coast and Perth confirmed its line-up: Lewis Capaldi, RAYE, KETTAMA, Baby Keem, DMA’s, Remi Wolf and more.
UK sort-of-post-punks, Squeeze, return after more than a decade in 2027, playing Brisbane’s Fortitude Music Hall, Sydney’s Enmore Theatre, The Palais in Melbourne, The Gov in Adelaide, and Perth’s Astor Theatre.
Legendary K-poppers BIGBANG play Homebush’s big stadium in October.
Local rockers vSpy vSpy, or Spy vs Spy, tour in October and November.
...and a book
Like a moth to the flame, I’ve ingested way too many books and articles about the 2 Trump administrations. This is the best of them.
Why? It’s so heavily reported and seemingly unvarnished. And it posits a theory beyond the simplistic ‘Trump is chaos’ palaver. The New York Times’ Maggie Halberman and former SMH journo Jonathan Swan go deep in their dive of the last couple of years of the Trump presidency showing, with unsparing details, the arseholeness, vengeance, incompetence, and planning that’s behind an unprecedented grab for power and influence. Unlike previous works by Bob Woodward and the now-tarnished Michael Wolff, this seems even-handed and doesn’t contain merely the bitching of disaffected staffers or single, powerful sources. Normally in these books you can deduce the sources, which is a bad sign. Not necessarily in this one. Except maybe the chapter on Middle East negotiations after which you almost feel admiration for Jared Kushner. Trump even spoke to them, which they don’t bang on about but clearly their interview gives so many of the stories and verbatim quotes a credibility.
A very good book. And both authors heavily praise former AFR writer Pamela Williams, who appears to have been editor/sounding board for them.
Until next week, be a good person.