With Hollywood struggling in China, can the Odyssey draw a crowd?

Published 13 August 2026 · entertainment

The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s summer blockbuster juggernaut, has overcome an onslaught of attacks from the world’s richest man and stared down criticism from a classicist

The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s summer blockbuster juggernaut, has overcome an onslaught of attacks from the world’s richest man and stared down criticism from a classicist who translated the poem, to become one of the year’s most celebrated and highest-grossing films. But this week, the film faces one of its biggest challenges yet. Released in China on Friday, Nolan’s latest epic will test whether Hollywood blockbusters can still draw audiences in China, a market that is increasingly dominated by domestic films. For now, the signs are good: the Odyssey is set to be released on most of the country’s roughly 800 Imax screens and the film received a high-profile Beijing premiere last week at the China Film Museum where Nolan greeted fans alongside the film’s stars Matt Damon and Charlize Theron. Weekend sneak previews sold out and the Odyssey has since topped the “most anticipated” ranking on Maoyan, China’s largest ticketing platform. But its launch comes at a time when western productions have struggled at the box office. Hollywood once saw China as a huge potential market for boosting box office sales, but amid rising tensions with the US, Beijing has curbed the number of western films approved for release. Local titles have accounted for about 80% of annual box office revenue in recent years, as Chinese moviegoers have increasingly favoured homegrown films amid government efforts to promote domestic cinema.

View image in fullscreen (L-r) Christopher Nolan, Matt Damon, Charlize Theron and Emma Thomas speak to audiences at the Odyssey’s Chinese premiere. Photograph: Yanshan Zhang/Getty Images for Universal Pictures As China seeks to boost consumer spending, Hollywood films have returned to Chinese cinemas, despite the spiralling US-China trade war, although not at the level they were being approved pre-Covid. Fewer than 10 Hollywood films have cracked China’s box office top 10 over the past five years. But some experts say Nolan’s epics hold a special place among Chinese audiences. “Nolan is treated by a lot of Chinese audiences almost like a standalone brand,” says Dr How Wee Ng, senior lecturer at the university of Westminster, whose research focuses on cinema in the Sinosphere. View image in fullscreen Christopher Nolan signs autographs at the China Film Museum premiere last month. Photograph: Yanshan Zhang/Getty Images for Universal Pictures “Because we have a lot of middle-class, educated urbane elites who are now more demanding of cinema. They no longer just want usual action thrillers,” Ng says. Nolan’s last film, Oppenheimer, grossed about 450m yuan ($66m) following its 2023 release in China, making it one of the highest grossing films of the year in the country. His previous films, Interstellar and Inception, also remain enduringly popular Hollywood movies among Chinese audiences.