Christopher Nolan ‘The Odyssey’ lived up to its huge pre-release buzz, registering a strong opening at the Indian box office.
The film starring: Matt Damon: in the lead, matched the pre-release box office expectations of scoring a Rs 20 crore opening in India. Despite the Adults Only (A) certification, the film still managed to emerge as one of the biggest Hollywood openers of the year.
‘The Odyssey’ box office collection
According to early box office estimates, ‘The Odyssey’ earned Rs 20.76 crore on Day 1, with the net collection standing at Rs 17.40 crore after playing 8,413 shows across the country. The film recorded an impressive total occupancy of 48.7 percent, driven by demand for premium formats, especially IMAX screenings.
‘The Odyssey’ English version topped the collections
The film had a wide release in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, however, it was the original English version that accounted for most of the collections.Early talk estimates suggest that the original English version of the film emerged as a clear topper, contributing to an estimated Rs 13.75 crore nett to the film’s opening day haul. The Hindi-dubbed version followed with an estimated Rs 1.90 crore, while the Telugu version earned around Rs 1.10 crore and the Tamil version added an estimated Rs 65 lakh.
Occupying ‘The Odyssey’
The English release also witnessed the strongest audience turnout, recording nearly 70 percent occupancy in 2,113 shows. In comparison, the Hindi version registered around 10 percent occupancy from 1,468 shows, while the Tamil and Telugu versions reported a healthier occupancy of 22 percent in 227 shows and 25 percent in 346 shows, respectively.
IMAX shows increase in opening day numbers
As expected from a Christopher Nolan release, the premium large format screenings proved to be a major draw. The English IMAX 2D screenings of the film recorded an impressive 73.86 percent occupancy.
‘The Odyssey’ is one of the biggest Hollywood openers in India
With an estimated Rs 17.40 crore net opening, ‘The Odyssey’ has comfortably joined the list of biggest Hollywood launches in India. The film is currently trailing ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ which earned approximately Rs 18 crore nett and ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ which earned approximately Rs 21 crore nett.However, trade analysts noted that the final Day 1 numbers may still see a higher total as the film is expected to approach the Rs 20 crore nett mark if night shows and revised estimates are included. The opening is especially remarkable because of the film’s A certificate.
‘The Odyssey’ records strong pre-sales
The film also benefited from phenomenal advance bookings.With nearly 396,000 tickets sold in advance, The Odyssey ranks among the top four Hollywood pre-sales in India, behind ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ (505K), ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ (474K), ‘The Conjuring’ (443K). It also surpassed the ‘Mission. Impossible – The Final Countdown’ (248K).
Eyes on the film’s blockbuster debut in: worldwide box office:
“The Odyssey” has started again with an international flight. According to early projections by Deadline, the film is expected to earn around USD 50 million from Friday and preview screenings in North America, setting the stage for a USD 117 million three-day domestic opening.If those estimates hold, the film will deliver Matt Damon’s biggest opening weekend as a leading star and will also be the longest opening weekend for a live-action film in North America this year. The film also became the biggest opening weekend for an R-rated film of the year, surpassing ‘Backrooms’ (USD 81.4 million).The film is now Universal Pictures’ biggest opening weekend for an R-rated title, surpassing even ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ (USD 85.1 million).