Oppenheimer surpasses $500 million: box office record for WWII film

Oppenheimer makes $500 million and sets box office record for highest grossing WWII film

Oppenheimer has raked in over $500 million on the same day that its Barbenheimer counterpart Barbie reached $1 billion in box office revenue.

The figure of $552.9 million – estimated by Universal Pictures over the weekend – makes Christopher Nolan’s epic the most successful World War II film ever at the box office.

It has also become the highest grossing R-rated movie of the year since its July 21 release, and the fastest an R-rated film from Universal has grossed $200 million In the US.

Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, credited the film for its ‘astounding theatrical run made all the more impressive by the R-rating, running time and subject matter.’

He also credited Nolan as the director: ‘In the hands of a lesser filmmaker and absent a spectacular marketing and release strategy, [the film] would have likely wound up as a mere footnote when referencing the performance of historical dramas at the box office.’

Record-breaker: Oppenheimer has become the highest-grossing film set during World War II over the weekend, as it surpassed $500 million at the box office. Pictured: Cillian Murphy as J Robert Oppenheimer

Outstanding: Christopher Nolan’s (pictured) latest film is a biopic of the Manhattan Project physicist credited with the creation of the first ever nuclear weapons

The movie, featuring Cillian Murphy as the title-inspiring Manhattan Project physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, runs to three hours.

Its nature as a biopic also adds credit to it as a box-office success, becoming just the fourth to break half a billion dollars in global revenue – after Bohemian Rhapsody, Passion of the Christ, and American Sniper.

In becoming the most successful WWII film on the silver screen the film, which also features Florence Pugh and Robert Downey JR, it has overtaken Dunkirk ($527m), Saving Private Ryan ($482m), and Pearl Harbor ($449m) according to Box Office Mojo.

Oppenheimer’s success, as is well documented, has become intertwined with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.

Dergarabedian recognized the ‘bit of unforeseeable “Barbenheimer” magic’ as another significant factor in Nolan’s work becoming ‘one of the most revered, talked about and successful summer movies ever to be released by a major studio.’

The craze of going directly between screenings of the two very different movies was a massive boost for the film industry, as it wrestles with both actors’ and writers’ strikes.

Much like Oppenheimer, Barbie has also been a record-breaking success; its $1bn takings make it the highest grossing movie ever to have been directed solely by a woman. 

Star-studded: The blockbuster also featured Florence Pugh (left) and Robert Downey Jr

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