It’s been double-digit millions every day for Universal’s Christopher Nolan movie The Odyssey, which after a $17.6 million Thursday — a remarkably slim 3% dip from Wednesday’s $18M — ends its first week at the North American box office with $199.3M at 3,919 theaters.
Among Nolan movies in their first week, The Odyssey (similar to its $123.5M weekend opening) is third behind The Dark Knight ($238.6M) and The Dark Knight Rises ($225M) and ahead of Oppenheimer ($127.8M) and Inception ($100.1M). The second-weekend outlook for Odyssey is between $61M-$74M, but it’s clear from the weekday grosses that this Matt Damon movie has momentum. Nolan’s biggest second weekend at the domestic box office to date belongs to Dark Knight ($75.1M).
Specialty titles are serving as counterprogramming this weekend, with the Broadway live feature capture of Hadestown from Bleecker Street’s event cinema division Crosswalk and LD Entertainment making $1.5M in previews Thursday. Very good. Opening range for the event pic is $8M-$10M, and critics are currently 100% on Rotten Tomatoes with audiences at 99%.
The movie is on track to have the second-highest opening weekend for a Broadway capture behind only Disney’s Hamilton ($10.1M), which was released following its Disney+ debut during Covid on September 5 last year.
IFC’s Potsy Ponciroli’s gritty, R-rated dialogue-less crime noir Motor City revved up with $475,000 in overall previews that include Thursday night screenings and Monday mystery screenings. That’s a great number for IFC, right there in between the previews for Late Night With the Devil ($317K previews, $2.8M opening) and Clown in a Cornfield ($600K previews, $3.6M opening). The hope is for walk-up business on this pic starring Alan Ritchson, Shailene Woodley and Ben Foster, which was great last night at 65%. Critics are at 65% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Neon’s Nicolas Winding Refn-directed fashionista genre kung-fu noir Her Private Hell starring Sophie Thatcher and Beef Emmy nominee Charles Melton grossed $125K in previews. Refn is in L.A. all weekend doing Q&As for the film, as well as following a 10 p.m. show tonight at the American Cinematheque for the 15th anniversary of Drive; there was an L.A. premiere on Tuesday night with Thatcher, Melton and Havana Rose Liu.
Following the movie’s out-of-competition premiere in Cannes, Refn took the movie on the road for advance screenings in L.A., NYC and Chicago. It’s the third time he’s teamed with Neon’s Tom Quinn, who handled Refn’s Only God Forgives starring Ryan Gosling at Radius as well as the Pusher movies at Magnolia. Critical score on Her Private Hell is 45% rotten. Mubi has a majority of overseas on the pic which cost in the mid-single-digits before P&A.
Kristine Froseth in ‘Her Private Hell’