In a year when three major superhero movies have underperformed, a dense, three-hour biographical drama has outgrossed them all. Director Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer continued its phenomenal run at the box office this weekend, as it passed another major milestone. Having played in theaters for three full weeks, the film has now made nearly $650 million globally.

Oppenheimer added $18.8 million to its domestic tally this weekend — its fourth — and took its running gross to $264 million. The film has made $385 million from 78 international territories, for a global haul of $649 million. Having already overtaken Nolan’s own World War II film Dunkirk at the global box office, Oppenheimer will now set its sights on Interstellar and Inception, both of which finished with around $800 million worldwide.

Nolan’s highest grossing films at the global box office remain The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, which both earned a little more than $1 billion apiece. A huge proponent of the big screen experience, he remains probably the only filmmaker in the world with the ability to draw audiences to theaters regardless of what movie he’s showcasing. You don’t see a period movie do this kind of business every day. Remarkably, $134 million of Oppenheimer’s global gross — a full 21% — has come from IMAX theaters.

Oppenheimer remains the sixth-biggest Hollywood release of the year so far, behind Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ($684 million), Fast X ($719 million), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ($846 million), Barbie ($1.1 billion) and The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($1.35 billion). Earlier this year, major movies such as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and to an extent, even Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, all underperformed at the box office, for various reasons.

“Barbenheimer” Benefited Both Movies

But the film’s performance was no doubt impacted by the publicity generated by the “Barbenheimer” online meme — a cultural event revolving around the simultaneous release of Oppenheimer and the satirical comedy Barbie. This might have started as a game of chicken between Warner Bros. and Universal, but it ultimately ended up benefiting both movies. Nolan famously walked out of W.B. after a years-long partnership, in protest of the studio’s controversial decision to release each of its 2021 movies on the Max streaming service. He chose Universal as his new home for Oppenheimer. But it has recently been reported that W.B. is trying to court him to return.

Based on the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, known as the father of the atomic bomb, the film stars Cillian Murphy in the lead role, alongside a supporting cast that includes Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon and Florence Pugh.

via Collider