It’s a short journey to a massive opening weekend for ‘The Odyssey’

Christopher Nolan’s adaptation became the director’s first non-Batman movie to debut over $100 million.

It’s a short journey to a massive opening weekend for ‘The Odyssey’
Matt Damon in The Odyssey. / Universal Pictures

Hello! Welcome to The Box Office Report for the weekend of July 17-19, 2026.

1. The Odyssey

Weekend gross: $124.5M
Total domestic gross: $124.5M
Last weekend: New release
Percent drop: NA

It’s wild that, driven by IMAX innovation and a love of the Gotham font, Christopher Nolan films have become a franchise of their own. The Odyssey just landed the third biggest opening weekend of 2026, with its $124.5 million debut outdoing Michael ($97.2 million) and falling not that far behind The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ($131.7 million).

The Odyssey’s opening weekend is the first $100 million+ debut for Nolan since The Dark Knight Rises opened with $160.9 million in 2012. It’s also the director’s biggest non-Batman opening weekend, also trailing The Dark Knight’s $158.4 million. Nolan’s adaptation is also the biggest non-Deadpool opening weekend for an R-rated movie, sneaking past It’s $123.4 million. (The Deadpool trilogy rapidly became the gold standard for R-rated opening weekends, thanks to Deadpool 2’s $125.5 million debut, Deadpool’s $132.4 million debut and Deadpool & Wolverine’s $211.4 million debut.)

Knowing that I wasn’t going to be able to catch The Odyssey this weekend, I delayed buying a ticket at the Airbus IMAX Theater in Chantilly, Va. I then forgot to check back quickly enough for the upcoming week. I’ve been obsessively checking the Smithsonian website multiple times a day to see if and when more showtimes open up.

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2. Live-action Moana remake

Weekend gross: $19M
Total domestic gross: $82.1M
Last weekend: 1st
Percent drop: 56

After bombing over its opening weekend, the live-action Moana remake turned in a better second weekend than I expected. A 56 percent weekend-to-weekend drop isn’t great, but Disney’s ill-fated film could’ve easily turned in a plunge in the 60 or 70 percent range.

Still, though, a $19 million second weekend for a Disney tentpole is bad. An $82.1 million domestic total through two weekends is bad. The original Moana had a $28.3 million second weekend to take its domestic total through that point to $119.8 million. Moana 2 raked in $51.3 million its second weekend and was a rounding error shy of a $300 million haul in North America by that point.

And it seems like everyone behind the live-action Moana remake has moved on. Dwayne Johnson is back to promoting his tequila brand on Instagram instead of pushing this movie.

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3T. Toy Story 5

Weekend gross: $14.8M
Total domestic gross: $430.9M
Last weekend: 3rd
Percent drop: 22

The fifth Toy Story movie showed remarkable hold over its fifth weekend, falling only 22 percent from last weekend. With a $430.9 million domestic haul, Toy Story 5 moves past Toy Story 3 ($415 million) to slide into the No. 5 spot on Pixar’s all-time ranking. The film should easily pass Toy Story 4 ($434 million) before Finding Dory ($486.3 million) stands between it and the feat of becoming the third Pixar film to pass $500 million in North America, joining Incredibles 2 ($608.6 million) and Inside Out 2 ($653 million).

I finally saw Toy Story 5 this weekend, and I’m beginning a campaign to get Conan O’Brien an Oscar nomination for Smarty Pants.

3T. Minions & Monsters

Weekend gross: $14.8M
Total domestic gross: $137.6M
Last weekend: 2nd
Percent drop: 30

Minions & Monsters continues to dramatically lag behind the rest of the movies in the Despicable Me/Minions franchise. Its $137.6 million domestic total still sits at the bottom of the franchise’s ranks, still more than $100 million behind the $252.8 million that the original Despicable Me grossed in 2010.

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5. Evil Dead Burn

Weekend gross: $5M
Total domestic gross: $24.2M
Last weekend: 4th
Percent drop: 64

Evil Dead Burn’s domestic total through two weekends almost exactly matches the $24.5 million that Evil Dead Rise, the previous film in the franchise, opened with in 2023.

Box office numbers via The Numbers and Box Office Mojo based on Sunday estimates.

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Issue No. 471


Popculturology is written and produced by Bill Kuchman.
Copyediting by Tim Kuchman.

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