The Odyssey Box Office 2026 — How Zendaya and Tom Holland Are Making Hollywood History This Summer
Director Christopher Nolan’s long-awaited Greek epic “The Odyssey” collected $17.6M in Thursday preview screenings, the best preview total of any film in 2026 and a strong signal for an opening weekend that could reach or exceed $100M.
Deadline projected on Friday afternoon that The Odyssey Box Office 2026 will earn $50 million domestically on Friday and $117 million through Sunday. If that projection holds, The Odyssey is poised to top Oppenheimer’s debut weekend tally by nearly $35 million — making it Christopher Nolan’s biggest opening ever and the most significant individual box office event of the entire summer.
And at the center of it all: Zendaya and Tom Holland — a married couple making what could be a genuinely unique piece of Hollywood history.
The Film — What The Odyssey Is
The Odyssey releases in theaters July 17. The film is a 70mm IMAX epic directed by Christopher Nolan and led by Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, and Tom Holland. The story follows Odysseus’ mythic 10-year journey home while his family defends Ithaca from intrusive suitors.
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, a $250 million retelling of Homer’s epic and the first feature film ever shot entirely with IMAX film cameras, opens July 17 with the kind of anticipation the industry has not felt since Oppenheimer.
The complete cast is extraordinary: Matt Damon as Odysseus, Tom Holland as Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Zendaya as Athena, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Corey Hawkins, John Leguizamo, and Elliot Page.
The film follows Odysseus (Matt Damon), a hero of the Trojan War, as he tries to make his way home from Troy back to his kingdom of Ithaca, where his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and son Telemachus (Tom Holland) await his return. A series of mishaps and encounters, some of them engineered by the Gods themselves, throw Odysseus and his crew off course, setting up a 10-year journey in which they encounter sirens, witches, cyclops, and more.
The Odyssey Box Office 2026 Records — A Historic Opening
During the first few hours of its run, Christopher Nolan’s new fantasy epic The Odyssey breaks a box office record set by a billion-dollar smash hit. The Odyssey made $17.6 million at the domestic box office during its Thursday night preview screenings, rocketing past the record set by the Michael Jackson biopic Michael.
A Universal Pictures release starring Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya and Charlize Theron, The Odyssey is opening in 3,919 North American theaters, which includes IMAX digital venues, IMAX 70mm venues and premium large format theaters.
The scale of the opening puts The Odyssey on track to be the defining individual cinematic event of Summer 2026 — arriving in a season that has seen disappointing results from several major tentpoles and delivering exactly the kind of genuine cultural excitement the industry needed.
Zendaya and Tom Holland — Making Box Office History Together
First comes Christopher Nolan’s epic adaptation of The Odyssey, arriving July 17. Just two weeks later, Holland swings back into theaters in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with Zendaya once again reprising her role as MJ. Together, the films represent two of the most anticipated theatrical events of 2026 and could make Holland and Zendaya the defining faces of this summer’s box office.
It’s the kind of scheduling coincidence that rarely happens. Actors have certainly enjoyed multiple releases in the same year. Some have even had two hits in the same season. But it’s extraordinarily uncommon for a real-life couple to headline two massive tentpole releases that open just weeks apart.
The Odyssey is the only wide release in theaters this weekend, giving it sole command of the domestic box office ahead of Sony’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which opens July 31.
The cultural significance of this moment extends well beyond the box office numbers. Tom Holland and Zendaya — who confirmed their marriage on July 3, 2026, at Madison Square Garden just two weeks ago — are now the first real-life married celebrity couple to headline two separate major Hollywood blockbusters within the same month. Their transition from famous couple to confirmed newlyweds to summer box office dominators has happened in the space of a single extraordinary July.
The Fashion Connection — From Press Tour to Box Office
Zendaya’s extraordinary fashion story throughout The Odyssey promotional campaign — the Schiaparelli couture fresh off the Paris runway at the London premiere, the custom Louis Vuitton 800-hour gown at the Paris premiere, the method dressing approach embodying Athena in every look — has now delivered its ultimate payoff at the box office.
The press tour generated massive cultural attention that has translated directly into opening weekend numbers. The Zendaya Athena fashion story kept The Odyssey in entertainment news for an entire week before release — creating a level of audience awareness that is reflected in those $17.6M Thursday preview numbers.
What Comes Next — Spider-Man Brand New Day July 31
Every summer has its defining stars. In 2026, it’s difficult to imagine anyone having a bigger month than Tom Holland and Zendaya. Whether audiences are watching them navigate the dangers of ancient Greece in The Odyssey or cheering for Peter Parker and MJ back in New York in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the couple will be impossible to miss. Two weekends. Two blockbuster events. One Hollywood couple making what could become a little piece of box office history.
