How Nolan's The Odyssey Finally Beat Spider-Man Globally

Box-office wars aren't usually decided by inches. Yet here we are: a film in its eighth weekend nudging past a Marvel behemoth that dominated headlines for weeks. Strange. Thrilling. Moviegoing drama at its best.

Deadline reported the numbers first. The Odyssey hauled in $45.96 million worldwide over the weekend, earning the top spot in global box-office receipts for that frame. Spider-Man: Brand New Day, in its sixth weekend, brought in $44.1 million worldwide. The margin? Slim. The symbolism? Huge.

Why does a slim lead matter? Because this is the first weekend since Spider-Man’s opening that a rival has topped it on global weekend grosses. That shift turns what looked like parallel success into a genuine rivalry—especially curious given that Tom Holland and Zendaya appear in both projects, blurring lines between franchise and auteur spectacle.

The Odyssey has quietly become a titan. Its cumulative worldwide haul now stands at $1.627 billion, which includes $584.7 million from North America. It sits a hair's breadth—roughly $43 million—behind Jurassic World’s $1.67 billion. Surpass that, and Nolan’s film would claim Universal’s top spot in the studio’s box-office history.

Part of the film’s endurance is where audiences are seeing it. IMAX screens have been a fortress: The Odyssey has earned about $486 million from IMAX runs alone, making it the highest-grossing title in IMAX history. Big format. Big returns. It’s a reminder that presentation still matters to moviegoers.

And make no mistake—Spider-Man remains a colossus. Through Sunday the film had amassed $2.4 billion worldwide: $1.485 billion internationally and $917.8 million domestically. That places Brand New Day as the third-highest grossing film ever, behind Avatar at $2.9 billion and Avengers: Endgame at $2.799 billion. Domestic tallies were expected to touch roughly $923 million by Monday.

Numbers tell one story. The theater lines and social chatter tell another. Two massive movies, shared stars, competing audiences. Which direction the momentum will swing next week? That, for now, is the box-office cliffhanger everyone’s watching.