Oppenheimer Reaches New Box Office Milestone For IMAX Movies
Oppenheimer has crossed a major IMAX box office milestone. The Christopher Nolan movie is a biographical drama following J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) through his life as the father of the atomic bomb. When it opened on the same weekend as Barbie, the viral “Barbenheimer” double feature phenomenon helped propel the movie to a record-shattering theatrical gross. At the time of writing, it has been in theaters for over 100 days and has earned $947.5 million worldwide.
On Twitter, BoxOfficeReport.com shared an update on the Oppenheimer box office. Check out their post below:
According to their post, Oppenheimer’s international IMAX gross of $96.4 million makes it the “[fourth] highest-grossing IMAX release of all-time internationally.” This puts it behind just three huge blockbusters, namely Avatar: The Way of Water, Avengers: Endgame, and Avatar.
One thing that makes Oppenheimer’s $96.4 million international IMAX gross even more impressive is the fact that international IMAX screens provide just a small portion of a movie’s overall box office. While premium format screenings cost more per ticket and help boost a movie’s overall earning potential, the average audience member still tends to see a movie on a regular screen. However, Christopher Nolan’s reputation as a filmmaker worth seeing on the largest screen possible has helped drive audiences to see Oppenheimer in IMAX despite being less action-packed than his previous movies including Inception and The Dark Knight.
With an estimated international IMAX total of $96.4M, Oppenheimer is now the 4th highest grossing IMAX release of all-time internationally (behind only Avatar: The Way of Water, Avengers: Endgame & Avatar).#Oppenheimer #IMAX #BoxOffice pic.twitter.com/ufob5P3QTv
— BoxOfficeReport.com (@BORReport) November 5, 2023
$96.4 million is not only a great result for international IMAX, it’s a great result in general. In fact, only 37 movies out of the more than 200 releases so far in 2023 have grossed more than $96.4 million worldwide, including Oppenheimer. The movie’s non-domestic IMAX gross has earned more than the entire global runs of several blockbuster movies including Saw X ($95.8 million), Air ($90 million), Cocaine Bear ($88 million), and No Hard Feelings ($87.2 million).
What makes this feat even more impressive is the fact that the movie premiered the same week as the beginning of the ongoing Screen Actors Guild strike. Actors, including the Oppenheimer cast, are refraining from promoting struck projects while they fight for fair pay, and while they were able to put in a lot of press time prior to the release, the theatrical run itself has largely gone unpromoted. This means that the movie has experienced this intense longevity largely on the back of organic hype and word of mouth.
