Go Woke, Go Broke? The Odyssey Sails to Massive Opening Weekend Despite Racist, Transphobic Backlash

Transphobes and racists have been mad ever since the cast for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey was announced in May — and they can stay mad. Despite their feeble attempts to boycott the film over casting Elliot Page as Sinon and Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy, the film grossed $124 million domestically in its opening weekend alone, per Variety, smashing estimates about its projected earnings — and crushing the hearts of rights-wingers everywhere. This marks the third largest grossing opening weekend of the year, falling only after Toy Story 5 and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, both of which have much broader audiences and are far shorter than the three-hour, R-rated epic. The backlash began in May after it was rumored that Page would play Achilles in the film adaptation of Homer’s epic work of — and we cannot emphasize this enough — fiction. This mythological component is important to reiterate because right-wing figures like Newsmax anchor Rob Finnerty clung to the concept of historical accuracy to support their bigoted critiques of the casting. Elon Musk even said the film was a ploy to “destroy Western Civilization and everything that helped create it,” while amplifying misinformation on his platform X, including about which fictional person Page would play. Despite all the controversy, the film — which many X users claimed would be ruined by “woke” and “DEI” — is a smash hit. Reviewers have given it positive ratings across the board, earning it a 98% thus far on Rotten Tomatoes, higher than ratings for Nolan’s Oscar-winning film Oppenheimer. Even infamous conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro gave the film a 9/10 and called it a “terrific movie.”In a review for Esquire, Matt Blake wrote that “the only travesty” in the film’s casting “is the waste of [Nyong'o’s] talent in such a small role.” Ultimately, the reviews — and sold-out theaters — speak for themselves about the broad public reception of the casti