A year ago, Christopher Nolan’s biopic on the father of the atomic bomb opened in cinemas to a thunderous response. Like his previous films, Oppenheimer was one of the most anticipated movies of the year, partly due to its releasing partner Barbie, sparking the phenomenal Barbenheimer meme.
While Barbie may have earned the big billion at the box office, Nolan’s three-hour epic on the horrors of nuclear war was not far behind in box office returns, and it also won big at the Oscars. One scene in particular, Nolan mentioned, captured the attention of the viewers so much that he was spellbound when he walked into the theater secretly.
Christopher Nolan Had A Crazy Experience When He Walked Into A Screening Of Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan is known for his cerebral epics and well-crafted superhero films that get the blockbuster treatment. The Inception and Dunkirk filmmaker took the world by storm when he helmed The Dark Knight trilogy, which has often been regarded as a game-changer in the superhero genre.
Despite being a risk in the current scenario, Nolan went head first with his $100 million epic on the father of the atom bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer. With Oppenheimer, the filmmaker explored the controversial scientist’s time at the Los Alamos Laboratory as they competed with the world to bring the first nuclear bomb to life in order to win World War II.
The first time Oppenheimer, played by Cillian Murphy, and his team test the bomb is a tense scene with multiple stakeholders awaiting the detonation. The Trinity Test sequence is the highlight of the film and Nolan reportedly snuck into the cinemas with his family to witness it unfold. He told Variety about the experience of watching the scene with a packed audience,
It was a remarkable experience to be there. Every seat was filled, and the focus on what was happening on-screen was so strong. That level of engagement was something that I’d never really felt before. Real attention was being paid.
The filmmaker reportedly went to the AMC Lincoln Square IMAX theater in Manhattan with his mother, wife, and producing partner Emma Thomas, and three of their four children.
Christopher Nolan Felt Oppenheimer’s Box Office Success Meant Good For Hollywood
The Barbenheimer phenomenon has been described as one of the most important moments in pop culture and a perfect example of counter-programming. While both Barbie and Oppenheimer were intended to be competitors at the box office, their polar opposite nature inadvertently turned them into a double feature by Internet memes.
This meant that neither of the films faced a terrible loss and both of them had incredible box office returns. While Barbie earned the big bucks with more than $1.4 billion and became the highest-grossing film of the year, Oppenheimer was not far behind with $976 million and Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and more.
According to Variety, this was the first time since 2001 that the top three highest-grossing films were not a comic-book film or a sequel. Christopher Nolan said,
It’s clear from the box office that audiences are looking for things they haven’t seen before. We’ve been through a period where it was wonderfully reassuring for studio executives to feel that their franchise properties could go on forever and be predictably successful. But you can’t deny filmgoers’ desire for novelty.
The filmmaker also mentioned how the film was a risk from the get-go as it was a three-hour conversational narrative about theoretical physics, but it nonetheless worked.
Oppenheimer is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
