Oppenheimer earns $500 million and sets box office record for highest-grossing WWII film
Oppenheimer has taken in over $500 million on the same day his Barbenheimer counterpart Barbie hit $1 billion in box office revenue.
The $552.9 million figure — estimated by Universal Pictures over the weekend — makes Christopher Nolan’s epic the most successful World War II movie ever at the box office.
It has also become the highest-grossing R-rated film of the year since its July 21 release, and Universal’s fastest R-rated film has grossed $200 million in the US.
Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, praised the film for its “amazing theatrical run made all the more impressive by its R rating, running time and subject matter.”
He also credited Nolan as the director: “In the hands of a lesser filmmaker and without a spectacular marketing and release strategy,[the film]probably would have become a mere footnote in referring to the performance of period dramas at the box office.” ‘
Record breaker: Oppenheimer has become the highest-grossing film set during World War II over the weekend, grossing more than $500 million at the box office. Pictured: Cillian Murphy as J Robert Oppenheimer
Remarkable: Christopher Nolan’s latest film (pictured) is a biopic of the Manhattan Project physicist credited with the creation of the first-ever nuclear weapons
The film, which stars Cillian Murphy as the Manhattan Project’s title-inspiring physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, runs for three hours.
The fact that it’s a biopic also contributes to its box office success, becoming just the fourth to break half a billion dollars in worldwide revenue – after Bohemian Rhapsody, Passion of the Christ and American Sniper.
Becoming the most successful WWII film on the silver screen, the film, which also stars Florence Pugh and Robert Downey JR, has won Dunkirk ($527 million), Saving Private Ryan ($482 million) and Pearl Harbor ( $449 million) caught up according to Box office Mojo.
Oppenheimer’s success, as has been well documented, has become intertwined with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.
Dergarabedian recognized the “bit of unpredictable ‘Barbenheimer’ magic” as another key factor in Nolan’s work becoming “one of the most respected, discussed and successful summer films ever released by a major studio.”
The craze to go straight between screenings of the two very different films has been a huge boost to the film industry, which has been grappling with strikes from actors and writers alike.
Like Oppenheimer, Barbie has also been a record success; its $1 billion gross makes it the highest-grossing film ever directed solely by a woman.
Star-studded: The blockbuster also featured Florence Pugh (left) and Robert Downey Jr