While Christopher Nolan only broke the $1 billion barrier twice throughout his career, Oppenheimer could potentially change this trend. Christopher Nolan is a very commercially successful director and his work throughout the 2000s helped shape the tone and atmosphere of the decade’s blockbuster franchises. However, although Nolan’s style is as influential as that of Michael Bay or the Russo Brothers, few of his movies have crossed the $1 billion mark at the box office. Only two of Nolan’s 12 movies made more than $1 billion upon release and both were bolstered by their connection to Batman’s reliably popular brand. Surprisingly, Oppenheimer could change this.
Nolan’s latest movie is a biopic and an adaptation of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s biography American Prometheus. Oppenheimer sees Cillian Murphy play the tortured physicist who was instrumental in the construction of the atom bomb prototype. An unconventional biopic, Oppenheimer jumps back and forth between various stages of his life to give viewers an immersive look at his political views, his changing perspective on nuclear warfare, and his personal foibles. Oppenheimer was a huge success upon release despite infamously competing with Barbie and has continued to excel at the box office despite a lot of blockbuster competition and its unsparing, intense subject matter.
Why Christopher Nolan Has Never Made A $1 Billion Movie Outside Of Batman
Now, Oppenheimer looks like it could become the first Nolan movie outside of the director’s Dark Knight trilogy to earn a billion at the box office. 2014’s Interstellar made an impressive $715 million, but it was 2010’s Inception that came closest to this achievement when that hit netted $837 million. This proves just how hard it is for non-franchise movies to break that barrier as both these movies were critically lauded. Luckily, Oppenheimer’s impressive critical acclaim propelled the movie to impressive financial success. What makes this all the more impressive is Oppenheimer’s comparatively small budget.
Oppenheimer cost around $100 million. While this is hardly a low budget, it is far lower than Interstellar and Inception’s price tags, which came to $165 million and $160 million respectively. Since Oppenheimer cost less than Nolan’s earlier blockbusters and boasted such an unwieldy subject as its focus, it would have been reasonable to expect the movie to underperform in comparison. The sizable box office competition from Barbie could have hurt Oppenheimer’s chances even further but, instead, Nolan’s biopic beat the odds. Oppenheimer’s superb cast and strong writing meant that the movie had legs at the box office, although the biopic may not clear its final hurdle.
How Much More Oppenheimer Needs For $1 Billion & What Its Chances Are
Having already brought in a staggering $912 million, Oppenheimer needs to make just under $88 million to hit $1 billion. According to Variety, Nolan’s biopic made $12.8m on the third weekend in September. As such, Oppenheimer needs to perform at a similar level for another seven weeks to hit $1 billion, or somehow start earning more money after its eighth week in theaters. Assuming that this doesn’t happen and Oppenheimer instead faces normal levels of audience drop-off, then it would have to keep going for even longer. With that in mind, Oppenheimer clearing $1 billion is technically possible, but not at all likely.
