The Odyssey posts $84M second weekend, Nolan box‑office record
The success of Emily Wilson's translation had nothing to do with Christopher Nolan. The hardcover edition came out 9 years ago and was a huge success. The paperback has been in steady demand since 2018. My store has sold 75 copies (a lot for 1 book for us) and 66 of those were before January.
Red Durkin148The film has absolutely spiked interest in HER translation, which is one of COUNTLESS. It's not an accident that Emily Wilson's translation and (in my experience, though I bet the numbers would bear this out) no one else's is the one people are looking for. I would argue Nolan should thank Wilson.
tove lovesitwhen20He did say he was influenced by it, which prob is helping overall numbers It’s not to say “this book is popular bc of Nolan, not bc of its own qualities” And so she’s been on a lot of podcasts and radio shows etc to talk about it. It’s great for her and a great vengeance for the shit she’s taken
Rothaí11Confession: I bought it 9 years ago, because of Wilson. I didn’t *read* until this year, because of Nolan. (Still haven’t seen the movie.)
Dr Juliette4It's preposterous they're saying she thought she would sell only 1000 books.
Holly Brigstocke3Nolan is Kubrick for people who want to watch Michael Mann movies. He's a hack who uses time gimmicks to make his movies seem more interesting and deep than they are. /snark I watched a new discussion with Emily Wilson. She knows her stuff for sure and showed The Odyssey in ways previously closed.
Melanie J2It’s more readable in her version. I had already started reading it before I heard anything about the movie coming out
Marley, a Werewolf of Wall Street9This isn’t even the first time her translation came under attack for being woke and soy! It happened in 2018 and the chuds and their enablers had all the same complaints they do about the movie now.
Mistress Divinity, Queen of Autism7don't give men credit for women's accomplishments, y'all!
Wisse For the Best5Wilson's translation was a success long before Nolan and ironically, this was partially due to rightwing chuds making it part of the culture war. Which meant it became visible to people who'd otherwise would've never noticed let alone bought it. Like me!
John P4I saw a clip of Dr. Wilson reading from her translation and immed bought audiobooks of her Iliad and Odyssey. A year ago. I mean, the poems are meant to be said aloud, no?
gina ✨4yeah wilson's translation is one ive heard being recommended for years (and is the one i intend to read...eventually...) attributing her success to the movie just feels like straight up misogyny
Devin Gingerich3I was a student at Purdue in 2019 when Wilson’s translation was the focus of their annual Big Read event and had her speak on campus. My Ancient Greek professor did a deep dive into it with us in our free time and it is truly impressive (and great learning material). It will stand the test of time!
hashfyre2Dame Mary Beard has been recommending her work for years. She had the galls to translate slaves as slaves, and not as handmaidens or other protective euphemisms.
🧵 Michelle Goldberg: No wonder Musk hates The Odyssey - Christopher Nolan has made a film rooted in real effects rather than CGI or AI.
DrDinD.bsky.social40"...according to a study by Fandango, Gen Z is now the most active moviegoing demographic"....and they want more realistic experiences. "Recent movies that look artificial — including “Supergirl,” the live-action “Moana” and “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” — have flopped. By ...
Jason Douglas Thompson9For all his money, Elon is a sad, horrible little man. He knows that the ship of his personal redemption has long since sailed off. All he has left that he feels is of any value are his worthless and dishonest opinions that nobody asked for.
Christian Petersen8If you're going to lose your minds over the historical accuracy of fictional characters, why not start with the most prominent example? The blonde-haired, blue-eyed, white-skinned savior.
pixels sideways7Elon is a white supremecist, a bigot, a misogynist & truly one of the most unimaginative humans to exist. He chases wealth and adds nothing good to humanity other than chaos. Of course, he hates the Odyssey bc it's about love, honor & integrity, things which Musk has possessed in his entire life.
John6Goes to show you that practical effects from years gone by are FAR BETTER than any CGI and certainly AI.
LovePet 🌳🦉🐦⬛🐘🦧🐕🦺🦜🐿️5Who gives a shite what Elon likes or dislikes
Okay one more odyssey post. Really loved the movie. But I for one am willing to stop rescuing Matt Damon. At some point we’re just going to have to collectively agree that if Matt Damon gets lost again we just have to let him go.
stonead20.bsky.social43Damon spelled backwards is Nomad. He is meant to wander. No need to keep dragging him back.
malakim2099 🔜 MagicCon Atlanta11Well... Saving Private Ryan Dogma Interstellar The Martian The Odyssey Yeah, just make sure Matt stays at home.
🔞🏳️⚧️::515::🏳️⚧️🔞 ( weekly goal $141/ $500)8This is the problem with outdoor Matt Damons, you should neuter your Matt Damon and keep him inside.
Dalric, The Diamond King4youre gonna curse us, the next movie is gonna be about matt trying to bring someone else home
FROG WIZARD1He got lost in space TWICE! At that point he’s not getting lost he’s just being a flake!
bic pentameter (reckless poetry) ❌1I know it’s not his fault but it seems like a cry for help.
It's old-school, swords-and-sandals cinema, yet still modern and richly satisfying.
"Complaints about Nolan’s “Odyssey” are mainly complaints about what counts as Western, manly, and heroic...about maintaining a highly circumscribed and prejudiced boundary of American identity downstream of a facile, vulgar conception of the ancient 'West.'” www.liberalcurrents.com/the-new-vand...
Julia In The Dining Room (With The Candlestick)7Also wait until Hegseth finds out women ruled Sparta
Julia In The Dining Room (With The Candlestick)5The Yanks amaze me with their white supremacy/Europe is a shit hole schtick. Ancient Greece would certainly have had Africans living there
Nolan's film is very clearly about America. I'd venture to guess he doesn't love all the war and corruption.
daughterofwitches.bsky.social2Most of those assholes have never actually read it and its pretty obvious to anyone who has. But then, bigotry and stupidity are highly correlated
The Beethoven Group1that quote should win a Pulitzer
Felix Buzzard1Racist white men are doomed to fail in a changing world.
The Odyssey is mostly Christopher Nolan's excuse to indulge in epic spectacle and ruminations on guilt, consequence, and the cycle of violence for a few hours. And you know what, I'm here for that.
Horus3This guy looks distressingly like Andrew Tate
nydeliveryguy.bsky.social2Great film. Every time I’ve seen it when Corey Hawkins realizes Matt Damon is Odysseus as an arrow goes through his neck, the audience claps.
burnzz2best movie i've seen in awhile
edwardthethirdsky1Is that Bernthal? I’m in
Maralyn Maralyn1I saw it today and it was incredible. But now I feel guilty because I just learned that Amazon made it and got a jillion dollars for tax breaks on it.
Maximilien Jokespierre1Just saw it myself and while I like Nolan’s spin on the story I came away realizing that what I really want is a 4 and a half hour Robert Eggers Odyssey willing to indulge more of the fantastical elements and fucked up morality of the source material.
not fair to say she sold them thanks to Christopher Nolan. it's a brilliant translation on its own. I read it. didn't buy it b/c of the movie. I already knew the story after reading it when I was young.
Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR)165Thanks. I came here to say this. Sure the film gave the story attention, but if it weren't a brilliant work, it would not have sprung to such prominence. How she makes that ancient world come alive so brilliantly, I have no idea, but wow, does she.
Kallastra122seconded! this translation was selling like hotcakes in my circles and being assigned in my kids’ high school before I had even heard there was going to be a movie!
Garlik of York7Agreed. There was a lot more discussion about it than there usually is for this sort of work even before the movie announcement. It's good timing, and I'm happy for her, but this is a simplification of the narrative.
ofpope.bsky.social6Yeah me too, but let's be real a TON of the sales are people reading it because of the movie hype. Yes it deserves it anyway, but sadly that doesn't generally have much to do with what actually ends up selling
Veronica4There was a lot of publicity about “first woman to translate it into English” that gave it an unusually high profile, and I bought it in hardback when it was released. Amazing work.
Kimberley Campbell Thornton2Yeah, I read it when it came out because it got such good reviews.
Can we talk about the audio of The Odyssey for a minute? Background ambi levels in a lot of the scenes were so high the dialogue was swallowed.
Christopher Plessinger40This is not the first time with a Nolan movie.
Daisy Grace29The older one gets, the more this problem becomes more of a... problem. I'm old. I know these things.
Sean Rohead23Drove 30 minutes to see it at a theater with open captions and it was totally worth it www.amctheatres.com/open-caption
Rhys Powell19If I go to the movies to see it on the big screen, I know I'm missing dialog. If I want the full experience, I gotta see the movie 2x, in theater and at home with subtitles.
Rob “Pluto Is Not A Planet” Braderson14Anyone else remember not understanding a single dammed thing Bane said in The Dark Knight Rises?
collier74.bsky.social8Here's where home viewing, with its Pause, Rewind and Subtitles win out.
I wrote about what might be the only overlooked aspect of The Odyssey.
Sam Adams17PS: Slate has gift links now, and this is one
The Once-ler4The Cyclops gets overlooked because it's the first obstacle Odysseus encounters, so it's treated like the Big Bob-omb of this world, but it is an electrifying sequence that by itself could be climax of almost any other movie.
Justin Francis3Didn’t know this was Bill Irwin till after but its such a rad casting choice.
Gregor Samosa2I saw him when I was a kid and he was just coming up. In retrospect I realize what a privilege that was!
JulieBuellie2I cried for him in the theater, such a great performance.
Dana Stevens41Lovely tribute to the (literally!) towering work of Bill Irwin:
Jordan Harper16I'm overlooking all the flaws in this movie because in this sequence I felt actual wonder while being at a new movie for the first time in a long time.
LarsenOnFilm9From a filmmaking/performance perspective, Cyclops is THE ODYSSEY's triumph.
Heart As Arena2"Still, if you’ve ever seen Irwin perform, especially onstage, you know that he uses his whole body as a carefully tuned instrument..." True that. That cat spins light from the moment he steps onto the stage or onto the screen until he steps off.
At the point where Odyssey complaints are way more entertaining than the film
Lea, grüne Khmer ⚧️ 🏏9The best take i read was "Finally conservatives have good conservative entertainment, so of course they can't stop complaining!"
Ni en pedo8I was on I88 on my way to Ithaca but could not resist the siren call of the MD 20/20 factory on Lake Eerie. No complaints, I can relate.
GaBigMike5I prefer period epochs that really stick to the source material and cast roles properly like Cleopatra and Ben Hur and The Greatest Sorry Ever Told.
flamingmoe.bsky.social4Fun fact: the average male height at that time was around five foot four, so if you want to be historically acurate, you need to cast the Lollipop Guild
Jaye Rich3I’m just extremely upset that there was a Black woman in a historical tale that took place 1,000 years before my god created the universe.
Brian O'Sullivan 3It's just a fantasy where Tom Brady finally beats the Giants
There's a lot of hay that can be made about the decision to use a nordic "viking" longship as the ship of Odysseus, but I have only one straw to pick in this thread:
Freyja Valentine, Girl IRL Cat URL81To the average modern fantasy fan, these are treated as equivalent fantasy mythologies, indigenous Icelandic culture and Middle Eastern culture treated as interchangable entities to be played with, equivalent to Tolkien or Spider-Man and to that mindset, this decision isn't even weird. It's natural.
rosa12it irks me because we literally already have an iconic ship that would be culture and somewhat time-appropriate!
ngalwrite.bsky.social10There's also the fact the studio won't pay $6k of damages incurred during filming.
Hera Hex8This just reads wrong. I'd have guessed it was a still from Vikings or whatever. Especially when "stereotypical ancient greek ship" the trireme has a decent pop-culture presence.
Alpha, Arrepiante Amo do Alxube7I love how the sail reduces Odysseus to The Horse Man™. It kind of implies trojans saw the wooden horse at the gates and thought "ah, this must mean the achaeans have surrendered, truly it has nothing to do with King Horse Man the Smart".
h. p. heisler4y'know i kept seeing wide shots from this movie and kept going what looks so weird about this and i was so laser focused on the costuming being so drab and boring and void of culture that i did not realize i was subconsciously reacting to the boats being wack.
Good grief. Now they think the Odyssey is really a terrible flop and the producers are faking the ticket sales.🙄
raptured.bsky.social3Shared psychotic disorders can also happen in groups of people who are closely involved with a person who has a psychotic disorder (called folie à plusiers, or "the madness of many"). For instance, this could happen in a cult if the leader is psychotic and their followers take on their delusions.
OODad3Who the fuck cares what MAGAts think? And I use the term “think” very loosely.
johnfoleybeast2So it’s Captain Marvel all over again.
Jack Jackson1It's what they would do. So, naturally, they're afraid it's what everyone would do.
jangoodell 1Maybe Soros is paying people to go 🤔
The Odysseus of Nolan’s “Odyssey” is 100% not the Odysseus of the epic poem, but I’m ok with that given that Homeric Odysseus is (by modern standards) a terrible person, and you couldn’t make a movie with THAT guy where a modern audience wouldn’t be rooting for the Wine Dark Sea to take him out.
Alexandra Jordan MD83Poseidon definitely had a point.
eke25it's funny that all of this has centered Emily Wilson's version of the translation as what Nolan read, too, because she's by far the strongest modern scholar on "these guys were brutal pirate slavers'
R Towle3Nolan definitely wouldn’t be making any film that deviates from his deeply misunderstood tormented secretly pure of heart if the world/women weren’t so mean male hero formula.
the woke mind virus prevented hollywood from accurately casting the odyssey with jason mantzoukas as odysseus
Brian Grubb89the role of odysseus simply must have this kind of authentic greek energy
MissyLissa.bsky.social9The problem is that I don’t think Zouks is believable as someone who regrets burning down a city.
TheJovian4Bro, no man. I'll do you one better: Jason Mantzoukas in Hesiod's Theogony where he plays Zeus on Zeus's insane ascent to ultimate power. Shit would be amazing and hilarious.
Todd Federman4Getting locked in a void to be used as a sex slave by both Charlize Theron and D'arcy Carden? What a resume.
Steve Martin Hotep2Bill Irwin was cool and all but man, Stavros Halkias as Polyphemus was a missed opportunity