Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has already set critical and audience review records for his films, and the movie’s opening weekend box office has surpassed expectations. But if there’s a more direct comparison, that would be 2024 Best Picture winner Oppenheimer, another large-scale R-rated feature from Nolan.

We have figures from just under one week of The Odyssey’s wide release last Thursday, July 16. Currently, the movie’s total haul is $303 million worldwide, with likely another $15-20 million coming in when Wednesday’s figures arrive.

That is well outpacing Oppenheimer, which earned $230 million its first week. But even past that, The Odyssey is outpacing 2008’s The Dark Knight, which earned $260 million its first week. It will not, however, pass The Dark Knight Rises, which earned $370 million. The context, of course, is that those were both PG-13 Batman movies, quite a draw in concept alone at the height of early superhero obsession.

Oppenheimer made $975 million at the end of its run, previously the largest earnings for a biopic until this year’s Michael passed it with $1.01 billion. The Dark Knight made $1.008 billion while The Dark Knight Rises, Nolan’s most successful feature, made $1.08 billion.

What the data suggests here is that if momentum is sustained for The Odyssey, the film could gross over a billion, and possibly out-earn both Oppenheimer and The Dark Knight, based on its current trajectory, which puts it well over both films (not adjusting for inflation for The Dark Knight). In theory, it has the potential to be Nolan’s highest-earning feature, depending on those legs.

There is a problem, however, and unfortunately it’s due to one of The Odyssey’s stars, Tom Holland. After his starring role in The Odyssey, Holland will return as Spider-Man on July 30 for Brand New Day, which is breaking ticket pre-sale records for a pending enormous opening weekend (and first week). Some believe it may actually end up the top-grossing film of the year, possibly higher than Avengers: Doomsday, its Marvel rival coming this December. That certainly seems possible, given that the last Spider-Man film, No Way Home, made $1.9 billion.

This is not to say that The Odyssey and Spider-Man can’t co-exist in theaters, as they are certainly disparate features, despite Holland’s appearance in both (what a year for him). But it will certainly make things a bit more challenging than if say, Super Troopers 3 was the main release that weekend (coming August 7th!).

Whether it hits a billion or doesn’t, The Odyssey is obviously a runaway box office success. We’ll have the full first week data in soon, and then we’ll see what kind of audience it has as the weeks press on.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller seriesand The Earthborn Trilogy.