'Odyssey' Tops North American Box Office on Opening Weekend, R-Rated Breakout Hit…Nolan: 'AI Is a Trojan Horse'

Mastermind behind 'Odyssey', the cinematic work that has taken over theaters worldwide, director Christopher Nolan issued a sharp warning aimed at 'artificial intelligence (AI)' technology. He defined today's tech-centrism with a distinctive metaphor, 'a transparent Trojan Horse', offering weighty insight into what it means to accept it blindly.

A Trojan Horse made of glass, piercing Hollywood's 'AI phobia'

On the 19th (local time), Nolan appeared on the YouTube channel 'Wegodecrypt' and said, "AI is a Trojan Horse whose hiding place is already known to everyone—that the Greek army is lying in ambush." He added, "It's like a glass horse that lets you clearly see how the internal gears mesh and keep turning," delivering a pointed rebuke. In particular, he zeroed in on 'AI Slop (AI Slop)', a low-quality AI-generated meme spreading among the 1020 generation, and focused on the instinctive rejection in younger audiences that goes beyond the concerns of older generations.

Calling this public defense mechanism 'very healthy skepticism', he argued, "Behind the technology there are hidden intentions from those who designed it, and you can only find the optimal balance point by doubting it constantly." Beyond a personal viewpoint, the stance aligns with Hollywood's 'AI phobia', where he also quietly supported the massive strike by writers and actors while serving as chair of the 'Directors Guild of America (DGA)', pushing for AI protection clauses. In this way, his philosophy of placing unwavering faith in the feel of analog film struck precisely at blind spots in the digital era.

Meanwhile, amid the flood of technology, Nolan's new film 'Odyssey', which remains focused on the essence of movies, is sparking an astonishing box-office surge in theaters. According to box-office analysis outlet The Numbers, the film, playing on 3,919 screens in North America as of the 17th, pulled in $124.5 million (about 185 billion won) in just its opening weekend, snapping back to 'No. 1 at the box office' immediately.

'R rating (not for viewers under 17)' and a long 3-hour runtime did not stop it from delivering a dominant achievement. That marks the 'best opening score' of Nolan's filmography and the franchise's third overall mega hit of the year, following 'Toy Story 5' and 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie'. Having already surpassed $264 million (about 393 billion won) in global cumulative revenue, 'Odyssey' has whetted audiences' intellectual appetite and set sail for long-term box-office success.