Christopher Nolan's biopic Oppenheimer starring Cillian Murphy broke an incredible world record this week as it officially became the highest-grossing biopic of all time - surpassing $900million in global ticket sales.
Over the weekend, Oppenheimer added $12.8 million in worldwide ticket sales with $10.7 million recorded overseas and $2.1 million in the US. After nine weeks of release, the historical drama grossed an impressive $910 million worldwide with $318 million from North American theaters and $594 million internationally.
Despite having a more limited audience with its R-rating, the movie highlighting the life of physicist Robert J. Oppenheimer dethroned the previous record-holder 2018 biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. The famous film directed by Bryan Singer and Dexter Fletcher had a PG-13 rating as it followed the life of the legendary singer Freddie Mercury and his famous rock band Queen.
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Despite Oppenheimer's amazing success, it still remains the third-most successful film in Christopher's career following his iconic Batman movies The Dark Night and The Dark Knight Rises. Since Oppenheimer's record-breaking run, the highly talented director is now rumoured to be in talks to direct the next James Bond film.
Paul Dergarabedian, a senior Comscore analyst, told Variety: “For Oppenheimer to cross the $900million global mark after just nine weeks in theaters is a remarkable achievement. It shows how an amazing film with a superstar director and a star-studded cast can turn a three-hour historical epic into a blockbuster mainstream hit.”
Inspired by true events, the popular biopic portrayed theoretical physicist Dr Oppenheimer following his personal life and creation of the atomic bomb during World War II. The controversial invention led by Oppenheimer brought about the world's first nuclear explosion that took the lives of hundreds of thousands Japanese civilians.
During filming, Nolan took on the difficult task of portraying the "father of the atomic bomb" on screen, something that the famous filmmaker said he wanted to feel as "personal and intimate" as possible. He said that he wanted to showcase every aspect of the physicist's life and the emotional turmoil and consequences the "broken genius" faced after forever changing the course of history.
Following the release of the film, Christopher told NPR: "If movies are a sort of collective dream, there's a sense in which Oppenheimer's a collective nightmare," Nolan says. "Of all of the subject matter I've dealt with, it's certainly the darkest."
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