The Odyssey Passed One Of The Biggest Marvel Movies Ever At The Box Office

Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" simply won't stop making money and breaking records. The filmmaker's latest epic has been ruling the box office since it opened in July. Despite being a full seven weekends into its now-historic run, the blockbuster has continued to work its way up the all-time charts. Now, Nolan's latest has managed to overtake one of the biggest, most important Marvel movies ever made.

Over the weekend, "The Odyssey" added $14.3 million domestically, placing third on the charts just behind newcomer "Coyote vs. Acme" ($15.9 million). Ridley Scott's "The Dog Stars" also flopped with just $8 million. More importantly, it added a hefty $48.6 million internationally, as Nolan's acclaimed epic is still doing gangbusters business overseas. With that, its running global total now stands at $1.552 billion worldwide, now the 14th biggest movie globally of all time. That puts it just above the lifetime gross of Marvel's "The Avengers" ($1.52 billion), unadjusted for inflation.

Directed by Joss Whedon and released in 2012, "The Avengers" redefined blockbuster filmmaking, serving as a proof of concept for the Marvel Cinematic Universe experiment. It brought several individual franchises together, delivering the biggest opening weekend of all time up to that point. It was a true cultural phenomenon, paving the way for everything that came after.

The only Marvel movies that have ever made more are "Spider-Man: No Way Home" ($1.92 billion), "Avengers: Infinity War" ($2 billion), "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" ($2.33 billion), and "Avengers: Endgame" ($2.79 billion), which was the biggest movie of all time until "Avatar" took that title back. But none of those movies would have made what they made if "The Avengers" hadn't been the resounding success that it was 14 years ago.

It's hard to accurately paint the picture of just how big of a deal "The Avengers" was in the summer of 2012 in just a few sentences. One of those "you had to be there" things, but it was unquestionably a huge f*****g deal. That's why "The Odyssey" overtaking it at the box office is particularly shocking. It's a testament to what Christopher Nolan has been able to accomplish. One way to look at it is that he's unequivocally the most bankable name in movies on the entire planet.

After "Oppenheimer" made nearly $1 billion and won Best Picture at the Oscars, he followed that up with an even bigger hit that is probably the current frontrunner to win Best Picture as well. "The Odyssey" also put Nolan above Marvel's biggest directors, Joe and Anthony Russo ("Avengers: Infinity War," "Avengers: Endgame"), at the box office, putting him at number three behind only James Cameron and Steven Spielberg. That's rare air, and Nolan also still has decades to add to his total.

Not to lower one to raise the other, but Nolan's "The Odyssey" had already taken the R-rated record from "Deadpool & Wolverine" ($1.3 billion). This is just another feather in its cap. If this movie didn't make another dollar, it would already be a resounding success for Universal Pictures. What's crazy is that it's probably going to overtake "Jurassic World" ($1.67 billion), one of the most successful legacy sequels ever, as Universal's biggest movie ever. That level of success is genuinely hard to process.

"The Odyssey" is in theaters now.