Jon Bernthal once brought Shane Walsh to life—one of the most ruthless survivors in The Walking Dead universe, dead-set on a mission to lead his own group through a post-apocalyptic world... and to steal Rick Grimes' wife along the way. But while Shane would go on to fail both of these objectives, the actor behind the character has found nothing but success this summer.
Bernthal starred in both Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, two of the biggest films of the year, each set to have a more-than-impressive box office run. But while the whole world knew the wall-crawler's latest adventure was guaranteed to be a hit, few could've imagined the level of success The Odyssey would reach. The Greek epic has sailed far beyond initial box-office projections and is now set on its way to break an impressive record.
The Odyssey is set to become Christopher Nolan's highest-grossing film
Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey acts as an adaptation of Homer's Odyssey, a series of historical poems preserved through the passing of time. However, the film itself has made history along the way. For starters, it had the biggest worldwide box-office opening for any non-franchised, live-action movie ever, grossing $264.1 million during its first three days across all territories.
Things didn't slow down after the premiere, as The Odyssey secured the second-best domestic weekend for an R-rated movie, grossing $87 million in the US and having a drop of just 30% when compared to its opening weekend. But just in case that wasn't enough, The Odyssey is now all but confirmed to surpass the $1 billion mark, with early estimates projecting the film will culminate its theatrical run grossing somewhere between $1.1 and $1.5 billion at the worldwide box office. To put into perspective how astonishing that figure is, here are the top ten highest-earning Christopher Nolan movies ever:
- The Odyssey - $1.1 to $1.5 billion (projected)
- The Dark Knight Rises - $1.08 billion
- The Dark Knight - $1.008 billion
- Oppenheimer - $975.8 million
- Inception - $839.8 million
- Interstellar - $764.3 million
- Dunkirk - $549.9 million
- Tenet - $376.5 million
- Batman Begins - $375.5 million
- Insomnia - $113.7 million
What makes The Odyssey's success all the more surprising is that it is an R-rated movie, which means it loses the children's demographic that is often the backbone of other commercially successful films like Toy Story 5. Furthermore, it's worth taking into consideration that the film has yet to be released in major markets such as China, Japan, and Korea.
The Odyssey could very well surpass Deadpool & Wolverine's record-breaking run of $1.34 billion at the worldwide box office, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever made along the way. However, the chances of that happening are entirely dependent on how much of a drop the movie will have now that Spider-Man: Brand New Day is set to take over the spotlight.
Jon Bernthal will be at the forefront of two billion-dollar movies this summer
The wall-crawler's upcoming adventure is tracking to have a domestic opening of $200 or $300 million and a worldwide opening of $700 to $800 million. For reference, Spider-Man: No Way Home had a domestic opening of $260 million and grossed $601 million worldwide during its first three days in theaters. As such, there's a very real chance that Brand New Day will become the most successful Spider-Man film ever made, even crossing the $2 billion mark by the end of its run.
With such fierce competition, The Odyssey is bound to have a big third-weekend drop. However, even that may not be enough to stop it from making box-office history and taking the crown from Deadpool & Wolverine. And regardless of what ends up happening, three clear winners are set to emerge victorious from the box-office war, and they are Jon Bernthal, Tom Holland, and Zendaya, who had the chance to star in both movies. The former two even had the chance to share scenes with each other in both projects.
In The Odyssey, Telemachus (Tom Holland) seeks the aid of Menelaus (Jon Bernthal) to figure out what truly happened to his father, Odysseus (Matt Damon). In Spider-Man: Brand New Day, however, the Punisher (Jon Bernthal) will serve as a warning sign to Peter Parker (Tom Holland) as to what the friendly neighborhood hero will become if he decides to follow a dark, relentless path. Their relationship is bound to be very different in both films, yet their fantastic chemistry will remain untouched.
The Odyssey is now in theaters.
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