The global press tour for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey began on Monday with its grand world premiere in London. The film’s cast and crew will now travel across the globe for six more premieres and press junkets in places like Mumbai, Shanghai, New York, and Paris. This raises the hype around the already heavily anticipated film to a new level. A couple of days ago, box office trackers in North America released their early projections for the film’s box-office prospects, and it all looks promising. Since then, the highly positive early critical reactions have only caused these figures to soar.

An adaptation of Homer’s epic, The Odyssey, is Christopher Nolan’s most ambitious film yet, with a reported budget of $250 million. That means it would need a blockbuster start to break even. According to Long Range Forecast, the film is already tracking to open at $100-120 million in North America when it releases there on July 17. Traditionally, Nolan’s films have done better overseas than in North America, given his global appeal. For instance, his last release, Oppenheimer, opened at $80.5 million domestically but earned $93.7 million from overseas markets. This was despite its competition with Barbie. The Odyssey seems to follow a similar pattern, and trade experts believe it has greater global appeal by virtue of being a fantasy action film.

Many critics who watched The Odyssey at its world premiere in London are calling it the ‘biggest film event of the summer’. The early box-office projections seem to agree with that claim. So far, the biggest Hollywood opening this year belongs to Michael, the Michael Jackson biopic. It opened at $218 million worldwide, including $97 million in North America. The Odyssey is expected to just edge past it. The Nolan film will comfortably beat the numbers of all other live-action films of the year, including the blockbuster Project Hail Mary, which had a massive $140.9 million worldwide opening.

The Odyssey stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, alongside Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, and a large ensemble. The film had its world premiere in London and will have another one in Paris in a couple of days, followed by one in Mumbai on July 11. It releases in theatres on July 17.