Oppenheimer’s $960 million box office achievement is even more impressive when weighed against its real 2023 movie rival instead of the Barbie movie. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie had simultaneous release dates in July 2023, which naturally brought about a rivalry over which film would perform better, even though the movies couldn’t have been more different. The viral Barbenheimer battle ensued, galvanizing the hype and expectation the public had for the two films long after the day of the showdown transpired and, even today, is arguably still in the throes of the contest.
Oppenheimer and Barbie’s respective numbers in ratings, the box office, and consequent nominations were outstandingly exceptional, making their rivalry doubly intense. However, when it came to raking in the big bucks at theaters, Barbie exceeded Oppenheimer’s $960 million with $1.44 billion earned worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing movie in 2023. Oppenheimer’s defeat may appear disappointing, especially at the tail end of its epic and long-standing movie battle with Barbie, except when compared to its real movie rival of 2023, Oppenheimer’s box office haul is actually very impressive.
Oppenheimer’s $100M Budget Was Half Of Killer Of The Flower Moon’s
At face value, it makes better sense to compare Oppenheimer to Martin Scorsese’s 2023 film Killers of the Flower Moon, as both movies are historical epics and were gauged identically by critics with 93% Rotten Tomatoes scores. A competition between Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon is fought on much more even ground than the contest Oppenheimer had to bear with Barbie. When measuring Oppenheimer against its much more logical 2023 movie rival, its worldwide box office gross is astonishing, especially because Oppenheimer’s confirmed budget was half of Killers of the Flower Moons’.
Killers of the Flower Moon
Killers of the Flower Moon is the next film from director Martin Scorsese, based on the non-fiction book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, initially captured by David Grann. When members of the Osage tribe are murdered in the 1920s via mysterious circumstances shortly after the discovery of oil on Native-American soil, the FBI is established to uncover the true reason behind them.
- Director
- Martin Scorsese
- Studio(s)
- Paramount Pictures
- Distributor(s)
- Apple , Paramount Pictures
- Writers
- Eric Roth , Martin Scorsese
- Cast
- Leonardo DiCaprio , Louis Cancelmi , Jillian Dion , Scott Shepherd , Jesse Plemons , JaNae Collins , Robert De Niro , Jason Isbell , Cara Jade Myers , Lily Gladstone
- Runtime
- 200minutes
- Budget
- $200 million
Killers of the Flower Moon made $156.4 million at the box office worldwide against a $200 million budget, while Oppenheimer made a fortune with a budget of just $100 million. The success that Oppenheimer attained with a tremendously smaller budget extends past what it established at the box office, for when compared to Killers of the Flower Moon, the movie outperformed in several aspects. Looking at box office measurements, audience reception, and award season nominations makes Oppenheimer a formidable film on all fronts of cinema that truly made the most of its money.
Title | Budget | Domestic Box Office | Domestic Opening | Oscar Nominations | RT Audience Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oppenheimer | $100 million | $329 million | $82.4 million | 13 | 91% |
Killers of the Flower Moon | $200 million | $67.9 million | $23.3 million | 10 | 84% |
Why Oppenheimer’s Budget Was Low Compared To Its Massive Achievements
Oppenheimer’s star-studded cast, 3-hour runtime, and large-scale, literally explosive nature begs the question of how the film’s budget was so low compared to other movies of its caliber. However, a combination of factors kept the film’s budget low and its number of achievements high, including paying Cillian Murphy and the Oppenheimer cast an amount of money lower than anyone would expect. Reportedly, Cillian Murphy earned $10 million, and big-name celebrities like Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, and Robert Downey Jr. were paid $4 million a piece, which gave Oppenheimer the appeal of Hollywood’s elite for a fraction of its budget.
Comparatively, Leonardo DiCaprio earned $40 million for his role in Killers of the Flower Moon (via Puck), eclipsing in salary most of Oppenheimer’s cast combined. A reserved amount of CGI in Oppenheimer also benefited the film, keeping its budget on the lower end while putting to good use a beautiful and crowd-pleasing blend of practical and visual effects. Lastly, and most incredibly, Oppenheimer capitalized off the great Barbenheimer phenomenon, which was the best publicity the movie could ask for and likely one of its most substantial conservation areas.
Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer is a film by Christopher Nolan, which follows the theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man behind the atomic bomb. Cillian Murphy will play the titular role, with the story based on the book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.
- Director
- Christopher Nolan
- Release Date
- July 21, 2023
- Studio(s)
- Syncopy Inc. , Atlas Entertainment
- Distributor(s)
- Universal Pictures
- Writers
- Christopher Nolan
- Cast
- Cillian Murphy , Emily Blunt , Matt Damon , Robert Downey Jr. , Rami Malek , Florence Pugh
- Runtime
- 150 Minutes
- Budget
- $100 Million
