Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ fires up UK-Ireland summer box office with huge £12.6m weekend

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Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ fires up UK-Ireland summer box office with huge £12.6m weekend

UK-Ireland top five, July 17-19 Rank Film (origin)DistributorJuly 17-19 TotalWeek 1  The Odyssey (US)  Universal  £12.6m  £12.6m  

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UK-Ireland top five, July 17-19
Rank  Film (origin) Distributor July 17-19  Total Week
1  The Odyssey (US)  Universal  £12.6m  £12.6m  1
 Toy Story 5 (US)
 Disney  £1.7m  £45.3m  5
 Moana (US)  Disney  £1.5m  £5.5m  2
 Minions & Monsters (US)
 Universal  £1.2m  £9.3m  3
 Evil Dead Burn (US)
 Studiocanal  £303,846  £1.7m  2

GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.35

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has fired up the UK-Ireland summer box office with a huge £12.6m opening weekend, the second biggest of the year so far.

Released in 754 cinemas by Universal, the film took a £16,731 average, the third highest for the director. The Odyssey recorded the second biggest opening weekend of the year, behind Toy Story 5 (£14.4m) and ahead of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (£9.4m). It also recorded the biggest opening Friday of the year, and a fifth-biggest opening Friday ever for Universal.

It is a second-biggest opening weekend ever for Nolan, behind only 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises (£14.3m) and ahead of The Dark Knight (£11.2m), Oppenheimer (£10.9m), Dunkirk (£10.1m) and Inception (£5.9m).

The Odyssey flourished in Imax, becoming the fourth-biggest Imax release of the year after just two days. It recorded the biggest-ever three-day opening at London’s BFI Imax. It has sold out all screenings there well into next month; including those presales, it is already in the venue’s top three highest-grossing films of all time.

While The Odyssey dominated screens and audiences, three other titles stayed in seven-figure territory.

Disney’s Toy Story 5 maintained second place in the chart on its fifth weekend with a decent hold, dropping just 33%. It added £1.7m and is up to £45.3m, now tracking slightly behind Toy Story 4 at the same stage (£47.3m) but overtaking the totals of Toy Story 2 (£44.3m), Frozen (£43.3m) and Finding Dory (£43m).

Disney stablemate Moana dropped 47% on its second weekend with £1.5m, and is up to £5.5m total, likely to finish well down on the £20.7m of 2016’s animated Moana and huge £42.6m of 2024’s Moana 2.

Universal animation Minions & Monsters added £1.2m on its third weekend in cinemas – a 32% drop that brought it to £9.3m total. It is tracking behind previous titles in the Despicable Me/Minions franchise, with five of the six previous titles landing precisely between £47m-£48.6m.

Studiocanal’s Evil Dead Burn dropped 56% on its second weekend with £303,846. It is up to £1.7m total, falling behind the rate of 2023’s Evil Dead Rise which ended on £5.5m

Takings for the top five films soared a huge 110% to £17.2m, boosted by The Odyssey, and are up 49% on the equivalent weekend from last year. Nolan’s blockbuster will hold sway next weekend with Vue Lumière’s animated Animal Farm among the few challengers, before Sony’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings in on July 31.

More to follow.