With ‘The Odyssey’ on Fire at the Box Office, Could Ludwig Göransson Be Headed for Another Oscar?
The Odyssey is the fifth consecutive film that Göransson has scored that has become a certified blockbuster.
Black News 
Christopher Nolan’s film The Odyssey dominated the box office in its opening weekend. The nearly three-hour epic grossed $123.5 million in the U.S. and Canada and $263.8 million globally, according to boxofficemojo.com.
Will The Odyssey also dominate the Oscar nominations? We won’t know for sure until the nominations for the 99th annual Academy Awards are announced on Jan. 21, but Oscar pundits are already breathlessly speculating that it could equal or beat Sinners’ newly minted record as the film with the most nominations (16).
The common link between these two films is composer Ludwig Göransson, who won an Oscar for scoring Sinners on March 15 and could win again in that category for The Odyssey. Göransson has already won three Oscars for best original score, more than anyone else in the 21st Century. He won in 2019 for Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther; in 2024 for Nolan’s previous film, Oppenheimer; and in 2026 for Coogler’s aforementioned Sinners.
The Odyssey is the fifth consecutive film that Göransson has scored that has become a certified blockbuster. His output since 2022 consists of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ($859.2 million gross at the global box office), Oppenheimer ($975.8 million), Sinners ($371.4 million),The Mandalorian and Grogu ($340.6 million) and The Odyssey ($263.8 million so far).
It is of course too early to declare someone the front-runner to win an Oscar. There are more than five months left in the eligibility year. But given Göransson’s track record, and the film’s success at both the box office and with critics,The Odyssey seems sure to at minimum be in the Oscar conversation for best original score.
Göransson will set several records if his score wins at the Oscars on March 14. Even if he is just nominated, it will mark the first time that a composer has been nominated for best original score the year after winning in that category since Alexandre Desplat was nominated for Isle of Dogs in 2019, one year after winning for The Shape of Water in 2018.
The Odyssey is the third consecutive Nolan film that Göransson has scored. The director and composer first teamed on Tenet in 2020. Nolan previously teamed with composers Hans Zimmer (for six films, one in tandem with James Newton Howard) and David Julyan (four films). Zimmer was Oscar-nominated for his scores for three Nolan films:Inception, Interstellar and Dunkirk.
Here are five records Göransson will set if his score for The Odyssey wins at the 99th Oscars.
