Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey made over ₹16 crore on its first day in India, the highest opening figure for the director in the country. Experts said it is clear that select Hollywood filmmakers, actors and brands can command a big draw on day one at the box office and not just grow slowly by word of mouth or social media recommendations.
This is usually the challenge for films in languages other than Hindi and Telugu. Earlier this year, titles including Michael and Project Hail Mary, besides F1: The Movie last year, built on the trend started by the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Experts said several of these names have built credibility and trust over the years and are known well enough for larger-than-life, cinematic experiences for audiences to turn up as they would for a local Indian star.
Nolan’s film opened bigger than recent releases of stars Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn. Kumar’s Bhooth Bangla made ₹11.5 crore on its first day while Devgn’s Dhamaal 4 earned ₹13.7 crore. Nolan’s last release Oppenheimer clocked ₹14.45 crore on its opening day. Last year, horror film The Conjuring: Last Rites made ₹16.9 crore on day one.
“The biggest shift is where trust sits. With Nolan, that trust has been earned film by film, over 20 years of delivering. That baseline of trust is what converts into a big day one. Word of mouth used to do that job. Now, the filmmaker’s track record does it in advance,” said Ashish Misra, head of commercialization at Cinépolis India.
The Odyssey’s first weekend gross was ₹69 crore, which includes higher-priced IMAX tickets, upwards of ₹600-800 each. It was the biggest in India for a non-franchise Hollywood film, Misra said. Oppenheimer, a dialogue-heavy biopic, itself was the early signal in 2023.
Strong openings
“Since then, we have seen F1 open strongly on Brad Pitt and the racing spectacle, and this year Project Hail Mary and Michael both arrived with real day-one momentum rather than building slowly. Even the Interstellar re-release did serious IMAX business, which tells you the audience is turning up for a name, not just a title they already know. What used to be true only for Marvel and Avatar is now true for a certain kind of filmmaker and star,” Misra said.
Sameer Munshi, chief operating officer at Miraj Entertainment Ltd, agreed the trend is not restricted to Nolan.
“Horror used to be a slow-burn, word-of-mouth category in India. Not anymore — Sinners and the Evil Dead franchise have opened big straight out of the gate. And advance bookings for Spider-Man: Brand New Day are already tracking at a pace that could challenge Avengers: Endgame for India’s biggest Hollywood opening ever—weeks before release. The common thread: a strong director, a known universe, or a distinct concept is now enough to open big on day one,” Munshi added.
Experts said multiple factors help Hollywood names in India. One, India’s premium screen network has matured, and Hollywood now designs films specifically for that experience; premium formats such as IMAX and 4DX drove a big share of The Odyssey’s opening weekend.
Two, global same-day releases mean Indian audiences get to see a film even before US audiences, so the old wait-and-watch habit has collapsed.
Three, studios are marketing India specifically now—earlier trailers, premieres and star visits, and regional dubs. The Odyssey opened in English, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil and a week before its 17 July opening, Nolan and stars Matt Damon and Tom Holland were in Mumbai for the film premiere.
Four, there’s a more discerning, event-seeking audience—Gen Z, especially—that treats a big-screen release as an experience, not something to catch later on streaming.
Large formats
Ashish Saksena, chief operating officer – cinemas at BookMyShow, said The Odyssey reinforces both the depth of audience engagement with global cinema and the growing importance of India within the worldwide theatrical ecosystem. The strong uptake for IMAX shows is particularly noteworthy, highlighting a conscious preference among Indian audiences to watch the film in the format it was envisioned for, further underscoring the enduring appeal of premium, large-format cinema, he pointed out.
“Hollywood has always had a steady base in India, but for the longest time that base was franchise driven. The Avengers films and the Avatar films encashed the most because they came with built in universes that audiences had invested in for a decade. What has changed is that individual filmmakers are now becoming the franchise,” said Kaushik Das, founder and CEO of AAO NXT, referring to Nolan as the clearest example.
Nolan’s films only started seeing meaningful revenue in India from The Dark Knight trilogy onwards, especially the second and third films, Das said. Before that, he was a critics' name here, not a box office name.
“You see shades of this with Denis Villeneuve after Dune and with directors like James Gunn who carry their audience with them across projects. The shift is that the opening is no longer waiting for reviews and word of mouth. The audience has already decided,” he added.