Christopher Nolan’s "Oppenheimer" Becomes 4th Highest-Grossing Movie of 2023

Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” has surpassed $700 million at the global box office, becoming the fourth-highest-grossing movie of the year.

After five weeks of release, the R-rated historical drama has generated $718 million at the worldwide box office, including $285 million in North America and $437 million internationally.

The movie has outperformed “Fast X” ($704 million) and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” ($686 million) and trails behind “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ($1.35 billion), Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” ($1.279 billion), and Marvel’s “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3” ($845 million).

Those ticket sales also rank as Nolan’s fourth-biggest movie of all time, passing 2014’s “Interstellar” ($715 million) and standing behind “The Dark Knight” ($1.006 billion), “The Dark Knight Rises” ($1.08 billion), and “Inception” ($837 million). It is also the director’s highest-grossing release in 50 overseas markets, including Germany, India, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia.

In North America, “Oppenheimer” has remained in the top three for more than a month. It is the highest-grossing R-rated movie of the year, ahead of “John Wick: Chapter 4” ($187 million), and the sixth-biggest release of 2023 after Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” ($297 million).

“Oppenheimer” has been a particularly huge draw in Imax with $146.4 million from the premium format’s screens. It’s the fifth-highest-grossing Imax movie ever — and the top four were $2 billion blockbusters: “Avatar” and its sequel “The Way of Water”, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and “Avengers: Endgame.”

Nolan adapted “Oppenheimer” from the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “American Prometheus.” Cillian Murphy stars as the theoretical physicist who led the development of the atomic bomb. The rest of the ensemble cast includes Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, and Alden Ehrenreich.