I didn't say highest-grossing. I said "probably the most successful" in terms of box office / critical reception / audience reception combination. The trifecta.

As for this year in movies, I *do* think it's been a stellar one. Box office is up 10% over this time last year, a number that will only continue to rise, while it's also looking to be the first year since 2019/pre-pandemic to cross $10B domestically. At the halfway point, audiences are not only embracing originality, they're rewarding it via movies like Project Hail Mary, Obsession, Backrooms, The Invite, etc. Hell, even the failures are encouraging, because they show that, in their thirst for originality, audiences are finally fed up with third-tier franchise fare like The Mandalorian and Grogu and Supergirl.

All-in-all it's been a super hopeful year so far, with the second half looking even better/more promising.

Lathspell said:

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ROFL... he was talking about John Leguizamo, not Pattinson.

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Well that at least makes more sense. Still, most of my opinion of HG remains.

It's really Hollywood's fault.

I know people that were apprehensive about seeing this because of the stupid casting. Not very attractive Helen of Troy and somewhat of a public outcry over Ellen page as Achilles (not the actual character but that was the public outcry).

I suppose it is also how you win Oscars these daysdiversity must be maintained.

Sucks but oh well.

For the record both of the most controversial casting choices were objectively terrible in the movie.

Do they just clone you guys in a lab somewhere and keep deploying you, under different handles, every time one of the others finally gives up and peaces out?

It's Hollywood's fault for... making a movie that is now the Best Picture front-runner and is going to do $1B at the box office based on critical praise and incredible word-of-mouth?

Okay?

As for your diversity quip, that's already been thoroughly debunked. I wish your handlers would at least catch you guys up to speed on the thread so far, but I guess that's part of the strategy... saying the same old **** for the thousandth time, so as to keep the fire churning.

Pretty desperate, though, at this point.

TCTTS said:

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I didn't say highest-grossing. I said "probably the most successful" in terms of box office / critical reception / audience reception combination. The trifecta.

As for this year in movies, I *do* think it's been a stellar one. Box office is up 10% over this time last year, a number that will only continue to rise, while it's also looking to be the first year since 2019/pre-pandemic to cross $10B domestically. At the halfway point, audiences are not only embracing originality, they're rewarding it via movies like Project Hail Mary, Obsession, Backrooms, The Invite, etc. Hell, even the failures are encouraging, because it shows that, in their thirst for originality, audiences are finally fed up with third-tier franchise fare like The Mandalorian and Grogu and Supergirl.

All-in-all it's been a super hopeful year so far, with the second half looking even better/more promising.

---

I know, you said "in the wake of the movie being well on its way to probably the most successful of the year financially", which made me wonder why you included the 'probably' caveat.

Given all of your gushing about the numbers, I would've thought Odyssey would be #1, so imagine my surprise to see it is only third.

I know reading comprehension can be hard, but try actually finishing the sentence...

"... in the wake of the movie being well on its way to probably the most successful of the year financially, critically, and among general audience - considering that trifecta, to this degree, rarely ever happens."

And literally no one ever said or thought it would be the biggest movie of the year financially, as Nolan movies aren't known for doing best-of-year numbers. Especially in a year with a Mario movie, a Toy Story movie, a Spider-Man movie, and an Avengers movie.

The cinematic universe of Christopher Nolan.

FOLLOWING (1998), MEMENTO (2000), INSOMNIA (2002), BATMAN BEGINS (2005), THE PRESTIGE (2006), THE DARK KNIGHT (2008), INCEPTION (2010), THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012), INTERSTELLAR (2014), DUNKIRK (2017), TENET (2020), OPPENHEIMER… pic.twitter.com/Nlfcun1Xba

— The Academy (@TheAcademy) July 18, 2026

zap said:

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Saw it on Sunday in IMAX. It is very good, but not a masterpiece. I will catch it again on HBO, but it just didn't hit with me.

7/10

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You will catch it again on peacock and LIKE IT!

Backyard Gator said:

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I just thought it was a funny comic.

TIL Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Toy Story 5 had the biggest opening weekends of the year.

Quote:

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The top domestic (North American) and worldwide opening weekends for 2026 include:

• The Super Mario Galaxy Movie: The animated video game sequel set the bar for the year, pulling in an estimated $372.5 million globally ($131.7M domestic) during its debut. [1, 2]
• Toy Story 5: Pixar's massive hit became the biggest domestic opening weekend of the year, bringing in $159.6 million domestically and an estimated $312 million worldwide. [1, 2]
• The Odyssey: Christopher Nolan's historical drama achieved the biggest live-action domestic opening of the year, earning $124.5 million domestically and $264 million globally in its opening weekend. [1, 2, 3]

---

Not exactly a stellar year for movies so far, huh?

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Super Mario Galaxy and Michael have grossed a billion dollars and Toy Story 5 will likely surpass that as well. 2024 and 2025 had 3 movies gross a billion. Add the Odyssey, Brand New Day, Dune 2 and Avengers: Doomsday, I'd say 2026 will be a huge year for movies.

TCTTS said:

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Do they just clone you guys in a lab somewhere and keep deploying you, under different handles, every time one of the others finally gives up and peaces out?

It's Hollywood's fault for... making a movie that is now the Best Picture front-runner and is going to do $1B at the box office based on critical praise and incredible word-of-mouth?

Okay?

As for your diversity quip, that's already been thoroughly debunked. I wish your handlers would at least catch you guys up to speed on the thread so far, but I guess that's part of the strategy... saying the same old **** for the thousandth time, so as to keep the fire churning.

Pretty desperate, though, at this point.

---

Those parts sucked. Sorry my opinion doesn't fit your world view. Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world, looked mid. Same with Circewho is supposed to be good looking. They picked someone not… and it hurts the story.

Ellen Page was also scrawny and not believable as a veteran of the war. Looked more like a ten year old. Which is virtually impossible after the 10 year war.

You can be mad people aren't fawning over the strange choices. I don't get it though. Movie was still really good all things considered.

The Ex Officio Director said:

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Peter Piper said:

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Backyard Gator said:

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I just thought it was a funny comic.

TIL Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Toy Story 5 had the biggest opening weekends of the year.

Quote:

---

The top domestic (North American) and worldwide opening weekends for 2026 include:

• The Super Mario Galaxy Movie: The animated video game sequel set the bar for the year, pulling in an estimated $372.5 million globally ($131.7M domestic) during its debut. [1, 2]
• Toy Story 5: Pixar's massive hit became the biggest domestic opening weekend of the year, bringing in $159.6 million domestically and an estimated $312 million worldwide. [1, 2]
• The Odyssey: Christopher Nolan's historical drama achieved the biggest live-action domestic opening of the year, earning $124.5 million domestically and $264 million globally in its opening weekend. [1, 2, 3]

---

Not exactly a stellar year for movies so far, huh?

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You do realize The Odyssey is rated R, right?

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And rated R movies do horrible in theaters.

Deadpool and Wolverine made 1.3 billion
Joker made 1 billion
Oppenheimer made 976 million.

Yep rated R movies do horrible.

---

You've named the 3 highest R-rated grossing movies of all time, all three of which have come out in the past 7 years. Every other R-rated movie ever made from the beginning of time to right now failed to do as well as those 3.

Before Deadpool / It broke the mold in 2016 in 2017, only 2 R-rated movies had even made $300 million at the domestic box office: American Sniper (2014) and Passion of the Christ (2004). Before Joker made $1 billion in 2019, the best-grossing R-rated film globally was the Matrix Reloaded with $741 million in 2003.

So yep, compared to the juggernauts of superheroes, Star Wars, and Pixar / Disney, rated R movies do horrible.

TCTTS said:

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I know reading comprehension can be hard, but try actually finishing the sentence...

"... in the wake of the movie being well on its way to probably the most successful of the year financially, critically, and among general audience - considering that trifecta, to this degree, rarely ever happens."

And literally no one ever said or thought it would be the biggest movie of the year financially, as Nolan movies aren't known for doing best-of-year numbers. Especially in a year with a Mario movie, a Toy Story movie, a Spider-Man movie, and an Avengers movie.

---

The sad thing is, I'm not even arguing with you, yet you still feel the need to try to insult me.

This is why people have issues with you, which triggers your persecution complex.

Bruce Almighty said:

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Backyard Gator said:

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I just thought it was a funny comic.

TIL Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Toy Story 5 had the biggest opening weekends of the year.

Quote:

---

The top domestic (North American) and worldwide opening weekends for 2026 include:

• The Super Mario Galaxy Movie: The animated video game sequel set the bar for the year, pulling in an estimated $372.5 million globally ($131.7M domestic) during its debut. [1, 2]
• Toy Story 5: Pixar's massive hit became the biggest domestic opening weekend of the year, bringing in $159.6 million domestically and an estimated $312 million worldwide. [1, 2]
• The Odyssey: Christopher Nolan's historical drama achieved the biggest live-action domestic opening of the year, earning $124.5 million domestically and $264 million globally in its opening weekend. [1, 2, 3]

---

Not exactly a stellar year for movies so far, huh?

---

Super Mario Galaxy and Michael have grossed a billion dollars and Toy Story 5 will likely surpass that as well. 2024 and 2025 had 3 movies gross a billion. Add the Odyssey, Brand New Day, Dune 2 and Avengers: Doomsday, I'd say 2026 will be a huge year for movies.

---

Not to mention Devil Wears Prada 2 and Project Hail Mary both did almost 700M.

In fairness, you're posting rage bait and then getting indignant at TCTTS for taking the bait

Look, we really need to understand here Nolan has long championed large-format film.

Odyssey represents a pinnacle of his vision: it is the first feature film in history shot entirely with IMAX film cameras. Every frame was captured on the massive 15/70mm format, designed from the ground up to fill the tallest, widest IMAX screens in their full 1.43:1 aspect ratio.

I believe the image quality of 70mm IMAX film is unparalleled.

This delivers vastly higher resolution, dynamic range, contrast, and detail than digital projection or smaller formats. The grain structure, depth, and three-dimensionality of real film, especially on these enormous screens, create an immersive, almost tactile visual experience that digital simply WILL NOT replicate.

Dude, it literally looks like you edited my sentence to make it appear as if I was saying The Odyssey was going to be the highest grossing move of the year (hence ending on "financially" and cutting off what came after it, which changes the context completely). Especially considering what you said directly after that. If that wasn't your intention, fine, but it doesn't take having a "persecution complex" to arrive at the conclusion I did, especially given our back-and-forths.

M.C. Swag said:

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In fairness, you're posting rage bait and then getting indignant at TCTTS for taking the bait

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And good grief is this thread moving fast. Way too much of my content is getting buried. Posters / lurkers are invited to click on my User Name, navigate to post history, and review.

TCTTS said:

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Dude, it literally looks like you edited my sentence to make it appear as if I was saying The Odyssey was going to be the highest grossing move of the year (hence ending on "financially" and cutting off what came after it, which changes the context completely). Especially considering what you said directly after that. If that wasn't your intention, fine, but it doesn't take having a "persecution complex" to arrive at the conclusion I did, especially given our back-and-forths.

---

Hey, stop bullying Backyard Cliff. He's doesn't post here a lot.

Tom Kazansky 2012 said:

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For the record both of the most controversial casting choices were objectively terrible in the movie.

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Except they weren't. But I'm shocked someone who bought into the culture war hype believes that.

There are lots of ways to have Diverse actors in The Odyssey, such as showing a scene of Poseidon going to party with the Aethiopes, as Homer mentions in the opening lines.

But Nolan instead chose Random Casting like you see in high school musicals these days.

— Steve Sailer (@Steve_Sailer) July 21, 2026

CharleyKerfeld said:

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TCTTS said:

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Dude, it literally looks like you edited my sentence to make it appear as if I was saying The Odyssey was going to be the highest grossing move of the year (hence ending on "financially" and cutting off what came after it, which changes the context completely). Especially considering what you said directly after that. If that wasn't your intention, fine, but it doesn't take having a "persecution complex" to arrive at the conclusion I did, especially given our back-and-forths.

---

Hey, stop bullying Backyard Cliff. He's doesn't post here a lot.

---

I had a hunch.

Though, they did overlap in posting here for a couple days, and Gator is a premium member while Cliff isn't. In other words, I don't know why someone would pay money for their sock.

On one hand, I want to believe Cliff was sincere, and finally had enough. Maybe he was//did.

But on the other hand, man, Gator sounds exactly like him, right down to the incessant "calm down"s and "relax"s, his stubbornness, relentlessness, know-it-all-but-doesn't attitude, etc. That and, right as one had a change of heart, the other did started posting here a ton.

Still, to go out of one's way to apologize, only to then swoop in with a sock, and pick the ****-posting/arguing right back up, would have be a level of derangement heretofore unseen, even on this crazy board.

Big discovery on Rotten Tomatoes for The Odyssey.

The real audience score is sitting at 56%, not the fake 97% they’re showing with their “Verified Audience” bullshit.

A r/KotakuInAction user figured out how to see the actual numbers behind RT’s manipulation.

Exactly what we’ve… pic.twitter.com/UUfunhT4Gu

— Gazz (@Gazz_54) July 20, 2026

TCTTS said:

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CharleyKerfeld said:

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TCTTS said:

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Dude, it literally looks like you edited my sentence to make it appear as if I was saying The Odyssey was going to be the highest grossing move of the year (hence ending on "financially" and cutting off what came after it, which changes the context completely). Especially considering what you said directly after that. If that wasn't your intention, fine, but it doesn't take having a "persecution complex" to arrive at the conclusion I did, especially given our back-and-forths.

---

Hey, stop bullying Backyard Cliff. He's doesn't post here a lot.

---

I had a hunch.

Though, they did overlap in posting here for a couple days, and Gator is a premium member while Cliff isn't. In other words, I don't know why someone would pay money for their sock.

On one hand, I want to believe Cliff was sincere, and finally had enough. Maybe he was//did.

But on the other hand, man, Gator sounds exactly like him, right down to the incessant "calm down"s and "relax"s, his stubbornness, relentlessness, know-it-all-but-doesn't attitude, etc. That and, right as one had a change of heart, the other did started posting a ton here.

Still, to go out of one's way to apologize, only to then swoop in with a sock, and pick the ****-posting/arguing right back up, would have be a level of derangement heretofore unseen, even on this crazy board.

---

Yeah, my black comedy movie idea ain't sounding so far fetched now is it?

hunter2012 said:

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Big discovery on Rotten Tomatoes for The Odyssey.

The real audience score is sitting at 56%, not the fake 97% they’re showing with their “Verified Audience” bullshit.

A r/KotakuInAction user figured out how to see the actual numbers behind RT’s manipulation.

Exactly what we’ve… pic.twitter.com/UUfunhT4Gu

— Gazz (@Gazz_54) July 20, 2026

---

Surprise, surprise.

Another hunter2012 post, another verifiable lie (see below).

What's the endgame here? Because at this point you've been doing nothing but ****-posting/spamming the thread with tweets that have been proven to be verifiable lies for, like, a week now, and nothing else. Then, when called out/proven wrong, you don't even acknowledge that they're lies... you simply post the next lie a day or so later.

I'm just curious what kind of person does that, with what motivation, and to what end? Especially now that the movie is a massive, runaway success.

Between you, some others here, and a bunch of chuds on social media, I've truly never seen anything like this. It's like this movie not only broke records, but broke some brains too.

hunter2012 said:

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Big discovery on Rotten Tomatoes for The Odyssey.

The real audience score is sitting at 56%, not the fake 97% they’re showing with their “Verified Audience” bullshit.

A r/KotakuInAction user figured out how to see the actual numbers behind RT’s manipulation.

Exactly what we’ve… pic.twitter.com/UUfunhT4Gu

— Gazz (@Gazz_54) July 20, 2026

---

This is the "discovery"

Wow.. it's all coming together now.
For those of you that didn't know: Rotten Tomatoes just changed the way user reviews are handled, exactly right before the release of The Odyssey.
For them to accept your review, you must have bought a ticket.
What this means is they can easily buy 1000 fake tickets and all give good reviews. It's the opposite of review bombing: review inflating.
Why go through such lengths?
The Odyssey was heavily marketed and invested, they need more than $700 million to break even, that's why they're going all out. It's a major investment for them.
But why did Rotten Tomatoes agree to sell itself?
Rotten Tomatoes is owned by Fandango Media.
Versant has a majority stake in Fandango, 75%.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts retains a 33% voting interest through his "super-voting" shares of Versant.
The Odyssey is produced and distributed by Universal Pictures.
Who owns Universal Pictures? Comcast.
Wow.

I don't know what "fake tickets" are. The user gives no proof about the 56% number in any way, shape or form.

Translator says

The encounter between the shade of Achilles (= the Iliad) and Odysseus ( = the Odyssey) in the Underworld scene stages the most explicit contrast between the two epics’ world-views; to some, it’s among the most important moments in the Odyssey. That Nolan omits it is bewildering. https://t.co/KRi6rURWIS

— Daniel Mendelsohn (@DAMendelsohnNYC) July 20, 2026

Lol... Redstone is either someone's sock or he posts things from both points of view so he can get more blue stars.

Redstone is literally the only person here who specifically *asks* for blue stars.

These are the saddest, most pathetic people on the planet. Their misery drives them so insane that they’ll latch onto any conspiracy theory that validates their delusions. A coalition of bottom feeders, grifters, and psychopaths at war with normal people. pic.twitter.com/huhoR27WIM

— Pedro L. Gonzalez (@emeriticus) July 20, 2026

'The Odyssey' Doesn't Stop: Epic Bound For Best Monday YTD Stateside With $17M+ - Box Office Update https://t.co/baDghvFfWE

— Deadline (@DEADLINE) July 20, 2026

Redstone said:

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And good grief is this thread moving fast. Way too much of my content is getting buried. Posters / lurkers are invited to click on my User Name, navigate to post history, and review.

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Thanks brother. Wish there was a function similar to the "staff only" one, but for you. If not just for the awareness you bring to the need for disproportionately more BIPOC in film and the arts alone. But you contribute so much more.

The important thing will be those who go back to see it again. You can't hit a billion dollars unless people are watching it more than once, no matter whether they gave it a "liked it" on a binary. I would have answered "liked it", but I have no desire to go back to the theater and see it again. After watching Oppenheimer, I knew I was going to want to watch it again with friends and family.

I'm still taking the under on $900M. We'll see...