(AP) — Hopes were always high for Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.” The studio knew the film was great, and commercial. But no one in the industry expected that a long, talky, R-rated drama released at the height of the summer movie season would earn over $900 million at the box office.
After an early screening, "Dune" filmmaker Denis Villeneuve said he knew he’d just seen “a masterpiece.” He even remembered saying that it would be a big success.
“But where it is right now has blown the roof off of my projection,” Villeneuve told The Associated Press. “It’s a three-hour movie about people talking about nuclear physics.”
As of Monday, “Oppenheimer’s” global total was nearly $913 million, making it Nolan’s third highest-grossing film, trailing only the “Dark Knight” sequels. It's also the third biggest film of the year behind “Barbie” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and the most successful biopic ever, surpassing “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It’s a staggering sum that has been driven by audiences of all ages and an enthusiasm for film and large format screenings.
“When you make a film, you hope that you’re going to connect with an audience in some form or another,” “Oppenheimer” producer Emma Thomas told the AP. “But, particularly with a three-hour film that has a serious subject and is challenging in many ways, this sort of success is beyond our wildest imaginings.”
Even after nine weeks in theaters, 11 of the 25 screens capable of projecting the coveted IMAX 70mm prints ( Nolan’s preferred format ) continued to play the film on some of the busiest screens, like the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles and the AMC Lincoln Square in New York.
“The reason we’re still in those theaters is because the audience is demanding it,” Thomas said. “This is not something that we can impose — I wish we could, but it’s genuine.”
Thomas, who is married to Nolan, has produced all of his films going back to his short “Doodlebug.” From “Memento” and “The Prestige” to “Inception,” “Interstellar” and “Dunkirk,” their original films have often defied conventional box-office logic. With “Oppenheimer,” they felt good about what they’d made but also know that the marketplace, and box-office tracking, has been a little unpredictable since the pandemic.
“Chris has always made films that challenge audiences,” Thomas said. “He has faith in his audiences and, generally, they’ve met him where he is.”
Their “pipe dream,” she said, was that it would beat “Dunkirk’s” opening weekend. Instead, it nearly doubled it. Now, “Oppenheimer” has many in the industry looking at the Universal Pictures release as a gratifying affirmation that projection and format aren’t just the domain of a few. Mass audiences are interested too.
“When a filmmaker as strong as Chris is pointing a finger at you and telling you where to go…you listen…and audiences have been rewarded for it,” filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson wrote in an email. “I know some film buffs who drove from El Paso to Dallas to see the film properly. That’s about 18 hours round trip.”
Twenty-four of the 25 top earning theaters showing “Oppenheimer” played it in IMAX 70mm or 70mm. Domestically, the 25 IMAX 70mm screens have grossed some $20 million; standard 70mm locations accounted for over $14 million. And this a decade after production of Kodak motion picture film stock nearly ceased.
“I don’t think there’s anyone who could disagree - seeing ‘Oppenheimer’ on film is superior in every single way,” Anderson said. “Not to mention, people are tired of asking, ‘Why would I go to a movie theater to watch TV?’ Good question...you don’t have to anymore.”
