Box Office Report for the Week of July 26

Christopher Nolan has obliterated all expectations at the box office for The Odyssey, which will likely become the Academy Award-winning director’s highest-grossing movie ever. The movie has already grossed over $600 million worldwide and has dropped 30% domestically from the previous weekend.

Locally and internationally, IMAX 70mm shows are a hot commodity, mostly fully sold out through at least the end of August. IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond confirmed during an earnings call last week that the studio plans to play the movie in the format “for months,” and that at least 4 movies are scheduled to be screened in IMAX 70mm in the next year. As we know, one of them will be J.J. Abrams’ The Great Beyond, which is why it is being delayed to next year. I’m curious to see which other movies are planned to sell out more venues in the coming year.

While Spider-Man: Brand New Day, also starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Jon Bernthal, is poised to break a bunch of box office records, nothing will slow The Odyssey’s momentum from becoming a billion-dollar hit, as analysts are expecting the movie to make from $1.2 to $1.5 billion worldwide, which would be the fourth film to reach that milestone after The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Michael and Toy Story 5, with the latter having crossed that milestone this weekend.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is also looking to hit that mark if early projections are correct. Whether The Odyssey will hamper the movie’s momentum remains to be seen, because it will be a litmus test for Marvel, which, with Spider-Man and Avengers: Doomsday, will not be getting any IMAX screens. Yes, Disney is taking great advantage of other Premium Large Format venues, including Dolby Cinema, for this latest Spider-Man installment, and Doomsday (going so far as to create a marketing gimmick named “InfinityVision”), but no IMAX can undoubtedly hamper a film’s box office performance.

The Odyssey is proving this firsthand. IMAX theatres across the globe are sold out for audiences to experience the movie the way its director intended. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Three will also go head-to-head with Avengers: Doomsday, which will not be getting IMAX, as Villeneuve partly shot the film with their iconic 70mm cameras. Whatever will ultimately happen between the battle of Marvel vs. auteurs making giant blockbusters, one thing is undoubtedly clear: it’s a great time to be a movie exhibitor right now, because after a few years of dormancy and uncertainty, the big screen seems to be back – and bigger than ever.

Here is the full list of the top ten films of the weekend:

1. The Odyssey (Universal): $87.0M (-30%) – 3,942 theatres
2. Moana (Disney): $10.5M (-41%) – 4,015 theatres
3. Toy Story 5 (Disney): $10.0M (-27%) – 3,375 theatres
4. Hadestown: The Musical (Bleecker Street): $9.69M – 1,949 theatres
5. Minions & Monsters (Universal): $9.6M (-29%) – 3,386 theatres
6. The Invite (A24): $2.6M (-25%) – 2,032 theatres
7. Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros): $2.6M (-45%) – 2,385 theatres
8. Young Washington (Angel Studios): $1.9M (-44%) – 2,029 theatres
9. Motor City (IFC Films): $1.6M – 1,600 theatres
10. Obsession (Universal): $1.5M (-37%) – 1,203 theatres

Source: Comscore