‘Oppenheimer’ Global Box Office Blazes Past Massive Milestone

Director Christopher Nolan’s three-hour biographical drama Oppenheimer is performing like one of his superhero movies at the global box office. Not only did it pass the lifetime global haul of Batman Begins this weekend, it has now hit the $400 million mark at the worldwide box office after just 10 days in theaters.

Nolan’s film has grossed $174 million domestically, and another $226 million from overseas territories, for a running worldwide gross of exactly $400 million. It is currently the 10th biggest Hollywood film of the year at the global box office, behind Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and John Wick: Chapter 4. The film added $46 million in its second weekend at the domestic box office — one of the best second-weekend hauls ever for an R-rated movie — and generated $72 million this weekend from overseas markets.

The film, based on the life and times of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, was produced on a reported budget of $100 million and marks Nolan’s first collaboration with Universal after a long and successful stint with Warner Bros. The acclaimed filmmaker severed ties with Warner Bros. in protest of the studio’s controversial decision to debut each of its 2021 releases simultaneously on the Max streaming service. Recent reports, however, suggest that WB is hoping to bring Nolan back into the fold.

How Does Oppenheimer Compare to Nolan’s Other Hits?

While Nolan’s own film Tenet was spared this indignity in 2020, it remains the filmmaker’s worst-reviewed and least-successful big-budget release. Tenet ended its global run with just over $360 million worldwide, against a reported budget of $200 million. Nolan had previously proven himself to be an unparalleled box office draw, consistently drawing audiences to theaters with the promise of an unmatched big-screen experience. He was, and remains, a big proponent of the IMAX film format. Two of his movies — The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises — have grossed over $1 billion at the worldwide box office. Even his challenging science-fiction epics Inception and Interstellar managed to gross around $800 million each worldwide, and his 2017’s World War II thriller Dunkirk concluded its run with more than $500 million globally.

Starring Cillian Murphy and an ensemble to rival all ensembles, Oppenheimer no doubt benefited from the “Barbenheimer” effect, which saw the simultaneous theatrical release of two major tent poles to unprecedented buzz, the other being Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. The satirical comedy passed the $750 million mark this weekend and is on track to become the second film of 2023 to gross more than $1 billion worldwide, after The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The top global territories for Oppenheimer remain the U.K., France, Germany, and India. You can watch our interview with Nolan here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.