‘The Odyssey’ Was Never Going to Bomb, Despite Grifter Angst
Plus: ‘Motor City’ madness!
A COUPLE OF MONTHS BACK, I highlighted the strange reaction to Christopher Nolan’s then-upcoming film, The Odyssey, in certain portions of the conservative media ecosystem. Particularly among the grifter set on Twitter, where Elon Musk had whipped people into a fury over the casting of Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy (because Helen of Troy couldn’t possibly be black and to suggest otherwise is a betrayal of Western civilization) and Elliot Page as a Greek soldier (because a trans actor couldn’t possibly play a Greek soldier).
I was fascinated by this story because it combined so many of my different interests: social media as a vector for disinformation, as chuds insisted that Page was playing Achilles even though no one associated with the production had suggested anything of the sort; conservatives turning against Christopher Nolan, who had long been seen on the right as, if not a fellow traveler, at least sympathetic to classically liberal/Tory-ish ideals; and amateur box office sleuths predicting disaster in the face of all evidence that Nolan and his studio, Universal, had a triumph on their hands via massive presales.
But the reason they felt so confident attacking Nolan was, ultimately, because they fundamentally misread the effect of previous outrage campaigns against major motion picture releases. They looked at the outrage directed at 2022’s Lightyear (because the film featured a brief lesbian kiss), last year’s Snow White (because the actress playing Snow White is Hispanic and had said she didn’t much care for the original), and this year’s Supergirl (because the lead actress said male audiences have a problem with strong superheroines), and concluded that those films all failed because loud people were angry on Twitter.
This impulse is, perhaps, understandable. It was also, quite obviously, incomplete. I think it’s safe to say that those movies failed because they were movies that nobody wanted, really. Lightyear was a weird digression from the Toy Story franchise featuring none of the previous films’ voice actors that was too complicated to explain to audiences in a one-sentence pitch. The original Snow White (1937) is too old to hit the nostalgia sweet spot, where parents take kids to see the live-action versions of movies that they themselves grew up with (like Aladdin or Beauty and the Beast). And no one is interested in Supergirl because outside of a handful of big names (like Superman or, as we’ll see next week, Spider-Man), the superhero boom seems to be over.
I’m bringing this back up not to take a victory lap—though I will do that in a second—but as a reminder that we all live in bubbles that we’ve built for ourselves on social media and elsewhere. And the Odyssey bubble on Twitter was exacerbated by the fact that someone at the site must have juiced the algorithm to highlight content about the film: Anecdotally, everything I tweet about the movie does huge numbers. These people were absolutely convinced that The Odyssey was going to bomb, that they were going to claim a great triumph for Western civilization by waging war on the forces of woke. They were blinded by a number of very obvious signals that this movie was going to put up numbers, like near-record presales.
And here’s where the victory lap comes in: In its first six days of release, The Odyssey has grossed nearly $200 million domestically. It’s running roughly 60 percent ahead of Oppenheimer at the same point, a gap that suggests this film will gross in the neighborhood of $500 million domestically and could make a run at $600 million. This means that, with the worldwide grosses included, the film will likely earn well over a billion dollars, in the range of $1.2–$1.4 billion. This means that it will handily make money for Universal, which reportedly spent about $375 million on production and advertising. Even if you assume theaters are keeping half of the take, that means that the film “only” needs to gross $750 million or so worldwide to edge into the black … and I don’t think any serious observer thinks it won’t get there. Elon Musk and his chud brigade have been soundly defeated.
The lesson, as always, is this: Twitter is not real life, and we should all keep in mind the bubbles we live in and what they blind us to.
One of the things we try to do here at The Bulwark is poke holes in bubbles. Right now we’ve got a deal going: New subscribers get fourteen days for free. That’s two weeks of bubble-busting. Sign up and hang out in the comments section with the rest of the cool kids:
I could’ve talked about this Odyssey nonsense on a thousand podcasts; I just love the story so much. But I’ll limit myself to linking to the video on the topic I did with Sam Stein and Will Sommer. It’s a fun one; I think you’ll enjoy it.
SPEAKING OF FUN PODCASTS, I had Nate Jones from Vulture on to discuss his new feature ranking the hundred most powerful directors. Check it out and leave your picks in the comments!
Which Directors Have the Most Hollywood Juice?
On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Nate Jones of Vulture to discuss his monumental effort to rank the 100 most powerful directors in Hollywood. We discussed how the audience has shifted from stars to IP to maybe, now, directors, and what that means for the industry. Plus: Who…
Review: Motor City
MOST MOVIES CLEARED OUT this weekend since it’s smack-dab in between The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brave New World. But there are a couple of new things in theaters. The new Nicolas Winding Refn flick, Her Private Hell, is out now. Not really my cup of tea, though I’m always there for a new Refn in the hopes that he recaptures that Drive/Bronson/Only God Forgives vibe, and I dug The Neon Demon.
More to my liking is Motor City, a movie made from a script that hit the Black List almost two decades ago but took a while to get off the ground. Probably because of the film’s gimmick: It is almost entirely free of dialogue, telling its story simply through the visual imagery onscreen. From my review:
What’s fascinating about Motor City is that it works almost entirely because we understand the language of cinematic tropes that St. John and Ponciroli are playing with. The wronged ex-con, the crooked cops, the loyal friends, the misled ex-girlfriend, etc. One could argue that this renders the film little more than a collection of clichés, nothing more than formulae designed to move things along. One could also invert this argument, arguing that St. John and Ponciroli are exposing these tropes, and commenting upon them with the silent structure.
Personally, I prefer to take the story simply as it’s presented: Motor City hits its emotional beats and revels in its “every shot a painting” aesthetic, luxuriating both in the slow-motion movement and in soaking in the faces on the screen. And there are some great faces in this movie. Ritchson, best known for his three seasons as Jack Reacher, looks as though he’s carved from granite, while Woodley embodies a sort of fierce, soft sadness. Ben McKenzie has aged into his post-O.C. roles with real grace: he looks weary and righteous as a cop who takes it upon himself to free Miller from his unjust imprisonment. And Miller’s buddies—Lionel Boyce (of The Bear fame) and Amar Chadha-Patel play two pals who fought with him in Vietnam and help spring him from prison—are perfectly expressive and emotive. Patel in particular embodies a sort of wild joy that accompanies the pursuit of justice.
It’s in theaters now. If you’ve already seen The Odyssey—or you’re waiting to see it on IMAX—you could do much worse than Motor City.
Christopher Nolan has established himself as one of those directors whom audiences will watch their movies simply because they directed it. So, yes, of course "The Odyssey" was going to be profitable.
From my personal standpoint, I really like his movies, and I look forward to watching "The Odyssey." His movies are both thought-provoking and fun to watch, and balancing the two successfully is a difficult thing to do.
Also, I'm not sure why conservatives would find Nolan to be a kindred soul. His movies don't strike me as political at all.
Given this (WOW! the new format is just WOW!) stupid heartburn about Nyong'o (a very beautiful woman) as Helen, one longs for the days when a much stronger Ripley protecting her child in Aliens was a hit. Nolan's joint is pretty much just as patriarchal as Homer's. Talk about a MAGA self-own.