The Odyssey is $43m short of Universal's biggest film ever

The Odyssey took nearly $46 million worldwide over its latest global weekend and finished first. It beat the film that is now the third-highest grossing release of all time.

That film is Spider-Man: Brand New Day. It still won at home.

Two different weekends

In North America, Spider-Man was No. 1 for a sixth straight weekend, with $18 million over three days and an estimated $23.3 million through Labor Day. The Odyssey, in its eighth weekend, was second on $13 million, or $17 million across the four days.

Worldwide, the order flipped.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day now stands at $2.4 billion globally, $917.8 million of it domestic and $1.485 billion international, per Deadline. The Odyssey stands at $1.627 billion, with $584.7 million from North America.

The record that matters now

Nolan's film became his highest grosser in August, when it passed the $1.085 billion taken by The Dark Knight Rises in 2012. That was always going to happen.

The more interesting line is corporate. Jurassic World is the biggest film Universal has ever released, at $1.67 billion. The Odyssey is roughly $43 million short.

A $46 million global weekend closes a gap like that fast. An ageing release loses a share of its audience every week, though, and it is late in this film's run. The next two global weekend reports will show whether the record falls in September or drifts into October.

A studio will call a record a milestone. It is mostly a line in the next earnings call.

Where the money is coming from

Both films are doing the majority of their business abroad: about 64 per cent for The Odyssey and about 62 per cent for Spider-Man. The domestic chart, which is still the one most headlines lead with, is increasingly the smaller half of the story.

Watch this weekend's global total. That is where the Universal record gets decided.