A pirated copy of Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ hit 2.1 million views on X in two and a half hours

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey found itself at the center of an unexpected online storm after a high-quality pirated copy spread across Elon Musk’s X over the weekend. The leak quickly drew millions of views before it was removed. It also sparked fresh debate about piracy and how major films can spread online within hours.

According to the BBC, one post containing the leaked film reached 2.1 million views in about two and a half hours on Saturday before the account was suspended. A second lower-quality version appeared on Sunday. It stayed online for roughly two hours and collected almost 50,000 views before being removed.

The incident was especially striking because Nolan filmed the nearly three-hour movie entirely on 70mm IMAX film. The format was designed for giant cinema screens, making a phone or laptop viewing the complete opposite of the experience the director intended. Universal Studios confirmed it became aware of the leak and acted quickly to remove the unauthorized uploads.

Kind of ironic for a movie made for IMAX to go viral on phones

Universal Studios said it takes copyright infringement seriously and will pursue all appropriate remedies to protect its content and intellectual property rights. It remains unclear how the pirated copy was originally obtained.

Despite the leak, the film’s box office performance appears unaffected. According to The Guardian, The Odyssey has earned $640 million worldwide since its early July release. The film also added $87 million in the US during its second weekend. That marked a 30 percent drop from opening weekend, though it still represented a strong hold in the world’s biggest box office market.

The leak also arrived during another controversy surrounding Elon Musk. Musk has publicly criticized the film’s casting choices, including Black actress Lupita Nyong’o portraying Helen of Troy. He has used his X account to question those decisions as part of broader discussions about diversity and inclusion in Hollywood.

Nolan has addressed the criticism directly. He said backlash over casting choices often begins before audiences have seen a film. He added that such debates usually have little connection to the finished work because people discussing it do not yet know what the film actually is. According to the BBC, X had not responded to a request for comment on the leak at the time of its reporting.