I’m Worried About Christopher Nolan’s $250 Million Odyssey Budget (& It’s More Concerning Than Fans Realize)

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Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is poised to be next summer’s biggest Hollywood production. Nolan has certainly proven himself as an astounding director, executive producer, and screenwriter. He began his career with Following (1998), before earning prominence by releasing Memento in 2000, which won him widespread recognition. His reputation only continued to improve with the release of Insomnia (2002), the Dark Knight trilogy, Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014), Dunkirk (2017), and the world-renowned box office giant, Oppenheimer (2023). Released on the same date as Barbie, Oppenheimer took summer 2023 by storm.

His work earned him international adoration, and it did not go unnoticed whenever the respective award seasons approached. He has earned eight personal nominations at the Academy Awards, bringing home the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director for his work on Oppenheimer. He continues to see box office success with nearly every release, alongside positive critical responses, audience reception, and overall support. He remains one of the few directors with a standing following, which is why he remains so prominent within the industry. Yet, unfortunately, Nolan’s upcoming project could very well be his riskiest production yet.

The Odyssey Is Christopher Nolan's Latest Production

It Will Realize the Second Story in Homer's Epic

Nolan’s newest movie revolves around The Odyssey and will be a direct adaptation of the latter of Homer’s epic. After the horrors of the Trojan War, Odysseus, the long-lost King of Ithaca, is desperate to return home. Unfortunately, he has earned the wrath of Poseidon, who ensures that he will be forced to take a long and aimless journey, rather than returning to his wife and son. It will not be Nolan’s first foray into one of Homer’s epics, as he was originally tapped as the director for 2004’s Troy, which was an adaptation of The Iliad. Nolan eventually turned down the opportunity in favor of the Dark Knight trilogy, however.

The Odyssey‘s teaser trailer is already available for viewing during Jurassic World Rebirth‘s previews.

Still, Nolan is certainly prepared for an incredible adaptation of this classic work. He has recruited an all-star cast that will include Matt Damon as Odysseus and Tom Holland as Telemachus, alongside a series of actors with unannounced roles. Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Elliott Page, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o, and Jon Bernthal will also appear in the movie. It is currently scheduled for a July 17, 2026, release date, and it remains in production through the end of August 2025. While Nolan is undoubtedly prepared to tackle the subject matter, there is one major problem that the project is facing.

The Odyssey's Budget Is $250 Million

It Will Likely Need Around $625 Million

With a subject as epic as The Odyssey, Nolan naturally needs a high budget to create a believable movie. He needs to adapt sets and settings into realistic environments that can match Ancient Greece, while also featuring gods, Cyclopes, and magic. The cast will be just as expensive, given that it is an enormous ensemble that features an extremely renowned cast. Matt Damon alone demands a large paycheck, and the inclusion of so many other stars just means that the budget needs to increase. The natural consequence is that the budget climbed to a staggering $250 million, per The Hollywood Reporter.

It is also still mid-production, meaning that the budget could continue to climb in the months to come.

There is no way to know exactly how much the movie will need to make a profit, given that every studio has different deals and expectations for each production. Still, an easy estimate is the 2.5x rule, which states that a movie generally needs two and a half times its budget to achieve a profit, after accounting for marketing costs and the cuts that theaters take from every ticket. With a $250 million budget, The Odyssey would need to earn around $625 million just to reach profitability by that metric. It is also still mid-production, meaning that the budget could continue to climb in the months to come. Nolan is remarkably skilled at remaining within the limits of his listed budgets historically, but he has rarely pursued a subject as fantastical or as effects-intensive as Homer’s works.

Nolan Is Not Guaranteed To Make $625 Million

He Does Not Always Excel at the Box Office

There is not necessarily a guarantee that Nolan will actually earn the $625 million that this movie will need. He has had many movies that would never have crossed that mark. While he has had recent successes that would cross that mark, including the explosive Oppenheimer and Interstellar, others would fail. Even Batman Begins would have failed with a $250 million budget, given that it ended its run with a mere $357 million, despite having the weight of the Batman franchise behind it. Check out the chart below, which showcases just how much every major Nolan production made worldwide, per The Numbers:

Of Nolan’s 11 major productions so far, less than half have crossed the $625 million mark. Six of his movies, including Dunkirk, Tenet, Batman Begins, Insomnia, The Prestige, and Memento, would have failed with a $250 million budget. Only five would have eventually succeeded. Fortunately, his most recent production, Oppenheimer, would have been successful. Yet Tenet, his 2020 release, would have been a complete disaster, given that it earned just $366 million. It was severely hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic, so it is not necessarily right to judge Nolan by that standard. Still, Dunkirk‘s $510 million total would also not have been enough, and that came before the pandemic.

While inflation would mean that some of these projects would likely have succeeded in 2025, an increasingly tumultuous box office makes once-sure bets increasingly unlikely. The Marvels (2023), Joker: Folie à Deux (2024), Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), Wish (2023), and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) were all fairly surprising failures. There were underlying causes for each of these box office bombs, but that does not mean that Nolan is immune to facing similar responses at the box office. The Odyssey is a well-known story, but audiences could still refuse to see what could amount to an adaptation of a classic that most read in a classroom.

There will be significant competition at the box office, which also poses a risk. This summer should be dominated by Superman, Fantastic Four: The First Steps, and Jurassic World Rebirth, but none of those films will have a follow-up by next summer. Instead, The Odyssey will be facing off against Minions 3, the live-action Moana remake, Evil Dead Burn, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Any of these could prove to disappoint at the box office, but the same is true for Nolan’s upcoming production. No matter how many stars there are or how excellent the movie is, The Odyssey has a high mark to reach just to achieve profitability. It is a genuine concern, and there is no true guarantee that this movie will succeed.