Homer’s tale of a warrior struggling to return home has overtaken one of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has surpassed Jurassic World to become Universal Pictures’ highest-grossing worldwide release, the studio announced on September 12, 2026.
The film has earned approximately $1.68 billion worldwide, moving past the $1.677 billion benchmark set by Jurassic World in 2015. The record, which is not adjusted for inflation, gives an ancient Greek epic a distinctive place in modern movie history.
For Greek audiences, the achievement has a significance beyond ticket sales: the story behind Universal’s biggest release comes from the Greek literary tradition, while Greece itself helped provide the landscapes for Nolan’s adaptation.
From Homer’s Epic to a Global Blockbuster
Traditionally attributed to Homer, The Odyssey dates to the late eighth century BCE—roughly 2,700 years ago. Its age is often rounded to nearly 3,000 years, but its central concern remains immediately recognizable: the struggle to get home after war.
The poem follows Odysseus, the legendary king of Ithaca, through ten years of wandering after the Trojan War. His return is only part of the story; he must also confront what has happened in his absence. Across its 24 books, the epic makes homecoming as much a challenge as the journey itself.
Nolan’s adaptation stars Matt Damon as Odysseus. Rather than confining Homer’s mythological world to studio sets, the production traveled across six countries, using real ships and coastal landscapes to give the voyage a physical setting.
That approach offers a new way into an old narrative. The attraction is not simply the spectacle of a distant world, but the human goal beneath it: a man trying to reach the life he left behind.
Greece’s Role Behind the Camera
The film’s Greek connection extends beyond its source material. Greece was among the production’s filming destinations, with Nestor’s Cave used for the encounter with the Cyclops, according to the Associated Press.
Other locations helped construct Nolan’s version of Homer’s world. Troy was built in Morocco, Iceland’s black sands provided the setting for Hades, and the Italian island of Favignana stood in for Ithaca. The resulting geography is cinematic rather than a literal map of the poem’s journey.
For Greece, that makes the film both an adaptation of its ancient literary heritage and a production partly rooted in its present-day landscape.
The Universal milestone belongs to Nolan and his collaborators. Its cultural interest lies in the source they chose: not a newly created hero, but Odysseus. A Greek poem about the difficult passage from war to home now stands behind the studio’s highest-grossing film.
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