Oppenheimer has returned to IMAX and broken a new box office record.
The Christopher Nolan movie, first released in cinemas, became the third highest-grossing release of 2023, behind Barbie and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Starring Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer returned last Thursday to IMAX cinemas around the world, re-showing the critically acclaimed biopic for a week, ahead of its home release on November 22.
L to R: Cillian Murphy (as J. Robert Oppenheimer) and writer, director, and producer Christopher Nolan on the set of OPPENHEIMER. CREDIT: Universal
Over the returning weekend it managed to make an additional $550k, bringing the movie’s total earnings at the IMAX global box office to $184 million, according to Collider.
Following its international re-release, it has now reached $96.4 million at IMAX, according to ScreenRant. Oppenheimer has therefore become the fourth highest-grossing IMAX release of all time internationally. It puts the movie behind Avatar: The Way of Water, Avengers: Endgame, and Avatar.
The return to IMAX cinemas comes after the dramatic increase of the company’s revenue by more than 50 per cent, thanks to both Oppenheimer and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.
The movie, which is not far off hitting the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office, was shot using high-resolution IMAX 70mm film cameras. Nolan himself has said that the IMAX format is the “best possible experience” for viewing Oppenheimer.
Although he stressed the work that went into the digitised version of the film adding: “This is the exciting thing about shooting an IMAX film: When you scan it for the digital format, you’re working with the absolute best possible image that you could acquire. That translates wonderfully to the new projector formats like the laser projectors.”
In a five-star review, NME wrote, “Oppenheimer is a monumental achievement in grown-up filmmaking.”
Elsewhere, Oppenheimer just overtook Bohemian Rhapsody to become the highest-grossing biopic of all time.
