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Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey continues its global box office domination, pulling more than $650 million worldwide after just two weeks in theatres. The cinematic juggernaut is already the biggest live-action film of the year so far, and is on its way to crossing the coveted $1 billion mark.
More impressively, it’s not just driving people to head to the cinemas…
Since its release, the film has been responsible for a surge in people heading back to the classics and reading Homer’s ancient poem. There’s a reported 70 per cent increase in UK sales this year compared to 2025; daily listening hours for “The Odyssey” in France have risen by more than 752 per cent on Spotify in mid-July compared to the previous month; and book sales have risen by 76 per cent in the US since the start of the year according to date from Circana BookScan.
Beyond reading habits, the release of Nolan’s film has also sparked interest in learning Greek.
According to Google Trends (via Preply and The Times), there has been a spike in searches for “learn Greek”, which have risen by 5,000 per cent in the last fortnight.
“Homer’s Odyssey was composed in ancient Greek, which differs significantly from the language spoken in Greece today,” said Preply language trends expert Madeline Enos. “Ancient Greek offers the opportunity to engage more closely with Homer’s original text and the wider classical world, while modern Greek can help people connect with contemporary Greek culture and communicate with speakers today.”
Enos added: “Whether someone is curious about the language of Homer or the Greek spoken today, that initial spark can lead to a deeper understanding of Greece’s linguistic and cultural heritage.”
While the film is making waves in cinemas and driving book sales and interest in Greece’s rich cultural heritage, there are some purists who have been left frustrated with Nolan’s take on the source material – specifically the use of contemporary English language.
Many are happy to accept this as artistic license and have praised Nolan’s adaptation, but others like British-American classicist Emily Wilson, whose 2017 translation of Homer’s poem was the first by a woman into English verse, are speaking out.
In an essay for the London Review of Books, Wilson writes: “I had hoped that Nolan’s affinity with these Homeric themes might push him to new creative heights, and enable him to conjure more believable characters. But The Odyssey features his usual combination of grandiosity and superficiality… The film’s vision is too confused, its characters too underdeveloped, to deliver what it half-promises in terms of big ideas – although it is very good at conveying big bangs and big giants.”
She adds: “Nolan’s Odyssey lacks many of the elements that make the poem great. It has nothing convincing to say about time, memory, history, war, or about the relationship between one warrior’s glorious return and the lives of his family, adversaries, comrades, friends and neighbours.”
“It lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth. Its narrative structure is gimmicky. The writing is abysmal. None of the characters has convincing motivation for their actions or words. There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible.”
Wilson also added that she “would be ashamed to have written any part of this script,” but did concede that the film was having an impact when it comes to cultural awareness of ancient Greek literature as well as cinema itself.
She told The Times that “the release of The Odyssey is still an event to celebrate” and that it is “bringing audiences back to cinemas.”
“Nolan is doing his best to get the general public reading again, and I am grateful.”
In Euronews Culture’s review of The Odyssey, we wrote: ” There’s so much to admire about Nolan’s gargantuan undertaking and how he departs from the Homeric world, preferring a tale in which the supernatural realms are pushed back to make way for a modernist reading of Odysseus’ psyche.”
However, editing, pacing issues and a lack of fun or emotion were pitfalls. We added: “Something is missing. Not the filmmaking flair, nor the ambition; rather a moment to breathe and emote during what sometimes feels like a dutiful α to β to γ trip to Hades and back.”
Read the full review here and check out where The Odyssey falls in our ranking of Nolan’s filmography and in our ranking of the Best Movies of 2026 So Far.