Pirated copies of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” spread rapidly across X over the weekend, racking up millions of views before Universal Pictures moved to take them down — a piracy wave that so far hasn’t dented the film’s record-setting box office run.
A high-quality bootleg surfaced Saturday afternoon after a post reading, “Someone uploaded ’The Odyssey’ full movie on X. Can you believe it?” amplified a message from an account that X later suspended. The clip drew more than 2.1 million views in roughly two and a half hours before the platform replaced it with a copyright notice, according to Variety, which confirmed the leaked footage was a high-quality version of the film.
A second, lower-quality copy appeared Sunday morning and lasted about two hours before it was pulled, this time after nearly 50,000 views, The Hollywood Reporter reported. By Monday, many of the links claiming to offer the film were instead redirecting users to “rickrolls,” the longtime internet prank that loads Rick Astley’s 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up” instead of the promised content.
Universal Pictures said in a statement that it “immediately initiated takedown protocols” after learning of the unauthorized posts and would pursue all appropriate remedies to protect its copyright.
Musk, who has criticized the film’s casting — including Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy and Elliot Page’s role — and the Academy’s diversity-eligibility standards, also reiterated that Grok Imagine would produce what he called a more “historically accurate” adaptation.
The piracy hasn’t slowed ticket sales. “The Odyssey” pulled in $90 million in its second weekend, a 27% decline from its $123.5 million opening, pushing its North American total to $289 million and its worldwide haul to $652 million after just 10 days in theaters. That represents the second-biggest sophomore weekend ever for an R-rated film, trailing only Disney’s “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
With “euphoric word-of-mouth and staggering demand for premium large formats like Imax,” Variety projects the film could overtake “The Dark Knight” ($1.008 billion) and “The Dark Knight Rises” ($1.08 billion) as Mr. Nolan’s highest-grossing film.
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