Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey," starring Matt Damon as the Greek king, has taken $652 million worldwide after just ten days in cinemas, making it the sixth-highest-grossing Hollywood film of the year. The result is striking for an R-rated, near-three-hour adaptation of Homer's poem, and its strong second-weekend hold suggests it will keep breaking records well into autumn, with executives already calling it a "global cultural event".

The film has earned $289 million domestically and $362 million internationally, and took $90 million in its second weekend alone, a decline of only 27% from its $123.5 million opening. That second-weekend figure is the largest of the year and the second-biggest ever for an R-rated release, behind only "Deadpool & Wolverine". Analysts suggest it could overtake Nolan's own "The Dark Knight" and "The Dark Knight Rises" as his highest-grossing film, and, depending on its China opening on 14 August, might even surpass "Deadpool & Wolverine" as the biggest R-rated release of all time.