'The Odyssey's Spiritual Predecessor Surges to #1 on Streaming Despite Poor Reviews

After a successful opening weekend at the box office, Christopher Nolan’s latest movie, The Odyssey, is officially here. To even call its opening weekend box office performance “successful” might be underselling it, considering The Odyssey now holds the record for the biggest live-action box office opening of 2026, and the biggest global opening of Christopher Nolan’s career. Widely praised by critics and audiences as one of the most immersive historical epics ever made, The Odyssey is in line to become Nolan’s second movie ever to hit $1 billion at the box office — the first was The Dark Knight Rises, the Batman film starring Christian Bale and Tom Hardy. The Odyssey is based on the famous novel of the same name written by Homer, but there are many chapters in the story that connect with some of the same characters. While comparison is the thief of joy, it’s only natural to compare movies that share characters and stories, and the most natural comparison to The Odyssey, at least for most fans, has been Troy. Brad Pitt stars opposite Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom in the 2004 historical epic, which grossed $497 million at the box office against a $175 million budget. All these years after Troy’s theatrical run, the film is currently only streaming on AMC+, and while it is charting in the top 10 on the platform, it’s also having a run of success on VOD. There is such a demand to watch Troy after seeing The Odyssey in theaters that the film has become one of the top 10 most-watched titles in more than 25 countries on both Apple TV and Prime Video. Did Critics Like ‘Troy’? Troy earned scores of 53% from critics and 74% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, both scores that are well below the 95% from critics and 97% from audiences held by The Odyssey on the aggregator site. The critics' consensus for Troy was that, while the film certainly boasts spectacle and entertaining action sequences, it lacks the emotional heart at the core of other all-time great epics. Many of these same critics of Troy have shared their love for the emotional story at the center of The Odyssey, along with the mountain of great performances delivered by Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, John Leguizamo, and more. Check out Troy on AMC+ or on VOD platforms like Prime Video, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of The Odyssey.