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I WANT TO BRIEFLY HIGHLIGHT two podcasts here at The Bulwark that demonstrate the breadth of the summer. First up was Mona’s book club, which she was kind enough to invite me on to discuss the Odyssey, both the film by Christopher Nolan and the epic poem by Homer (as translated by Emily Wilson). It was a fun (and hopefully erudite!) chat and I think you’ll really enjoy it, particularly if you’re getting a little burned out on politics. (Hey, no judgment: That’s why I’m here.¹) You can watch it now:
The Odyssey is one of the best stories of the summer. I don’t think anyone with any knowledge of the film industry doubted that Christopher Nolan’s ancient Greek epic would do fine—he’s one of the few directors whose name alone can open a movie—but I also think that lots of folks are surprised by just how fine this movie is doing. It grossed more than a million dollars a day at the box office through Wednesday, September 16, putting it near or at the top of the daily charts for two straight months. Beyond that, though, it was a cultural sensation, sending multiple translations of the epic to the top of the bestseller charts and sparking renewed interest in ancient history across generations.
In nearly any other year, The Odyssey would be the story of the summer. It’s the twelfth-highest-grossing film of all time, worldwide, at nearly $1.7 billion. (Again: This is a three-hour, R-rated, sword-and-sandal movie. No one saw this coming.) But two weeks after The Odyssey came out, Spider-Man: Brand New Day dropped. And this week, after 47 days, it became the highest-grossing film of all time, domestically. (None of these numbers are adjusted for inflation, of course, but I am generally of the opinion that there’s little point in measuring the box office takes from a world with the internet against a world in which people went to movie theaters to enjoy air conditioning.) And to mark that fact, I welcomed Chris McKenna, who cowrote the film with his writing partner, Erik Sommers, back to The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood.
For all the talk about superhero movies being dead and audiences having moved on, the performance of this film just goes to show that there’s ore in that vein yet. And it helps when the film in question a.) stars the most popular superhero in history while also b.) telling an emotionally resonant story. As I told Chris during our chat, this is, at its heart, just a really touching story about friendship and our need for human connection. That’s something everyone can understand.
It wasn’t all sappy stuff: Chris spilled some details on storylines that got pitched and shot down and how Jean Grey wound up being in the movie instead of a classic Spider-Man villain (or another mutant). And we briefly touched on the upcoming Avengers sequels before hitting on season two of Haunted Hotel, which hits Netflix on October 9. (McKenna is one of the executive producers. I interviewed showrunner Matt Roller about the first season last year. It’s a fun show; go watch it now!)
The Odyssey and Spider-Man: BND anchored the back half of the summer, but there were tons of interesting stories to emerge from the summer box office: the rise of the YouTube auteur with the success of Obsession and Backrooms; the soft performances of The Mandalorian and Grogu and Moana; the millennial nostalgia of The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Practical Magic 2<