Matt Damon has one of the most enviable career runs in Hollywood, having starred in prestige dramas, science fiction thrillers, fantasy epics, a hit action franchise, and cult comedies. His career has also peaked multiple times since his breakout film, Good Will Hunting, with standout roles in Saving Private Ryan, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ocean’s Eleven, The Departed, and The Martian. His films are mostly hits, and there are a few that will end up as highlights in his legacy. He surely scored big with The Odyssey, which has now toppled his underrated 2013 genre movie.
Damon has now appeared in three Christopher Nolan films — Interstellar, Oppenheimer, and The Odyssey. Known for collaborating with trusted peers, Nolan has repeatedly cast a handful of actors in his movies, and that says a lot about Damon’s three-film streak. It also worked out well for Damon, since Interstellar and Oppenheimer rank in Nolan’s top five highest-grossing movies. We’ve yet to see how The Odyssey fares, but it’s looking really good based on its opening weekend.
Christopher Nolan Sets a Career-Best Record with ‘The Odyssey’
The Odyssey is now Nolan’s career-best global debut with a worldwide gross of $264.1 million at launch, beating The Dark Knight Rises, The Dark Knight, and Oppenheimer. Premiering across 3,919 theaters, The Odyssey also earned $124.5 million in the United States, the highest-grossing domestic opening weekend for a live-action film this year. As if that flex wasn’t enough, that turnout has now impacted Damon’s filmography, by beating Elysium‘s total domestic take after just three days of screening.
Released in 2013, Elysium was director Neill Blomkamp’s sophomore outing after District 9. Both films shared the same tone and aesthetic, both of which were largely praised by audiences and critics, but Elysium was panned for its plot holes and simplistic narrative. Blomkamp later said the film did not have the right story in retrospect, and the audience reception confirmed it, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 58%. Despite the mixed reception, Elysium was a modest box office success, grossing a total of $93 million domestically.
‘Elysium’ Was a Box Office Success Despite Mixed Reception
“After I saw District 9, which I thought was entertaining and thought-provoking, Neill jumped to the head of the line of directors I wanted to work with,” Damon previously told SBS. Blomkamp is just one of the long line of auteur directors the actor has collaborated with, and it’s a very prestigious list. Damon has worked with Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan), Ridley Scott (The Martian, The Last Duel), Martin Scorsese (The Departed), Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting), Steven Soderbergh (the Ocean’s trilogy, The Informant!), and Anthony Minghella (The Talented Mr. Ripley). Recalling his interview with Christopher Nolan for Interstellar, Damon quipped that the director forewarned him he would be playing a small part. Damon embraced that “small part” and ran with it — he’s now headlining one of Nolan’s most ambitious films to date.
An image of Damon is making the rounds online, showing he was destined to star in Christopher Nolan’s sweeping epic. Photographer Greg Williams snapped a candid photo of the actor in between takes while filming The Talented Mr. Ripley, and guess what he was caught reading? Homer’s The Odyssey. How about that?
- Release Date
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July 15, 2026
- Runtime
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173 minutes
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
