Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has successfully broken a new personal goal, turning itself into the second highest-grossing R-rated movie. This follows a slurry of other good news for the cinema industry like Barbie overtaking The Super Mario Bros. Movie as the highest-grossing film of the year thus far.
Last we checked, Nolan’s historical drama biopic was picking up more steam, overthrowing Barbie for a single weekend, though, it remained in third place for the highest-grossing R-rated flick. During Labor Day weekend, though, things changed, and the piece of cinema has overtaken Deadpool 2, per Collider.
Oppenheimer has a lot of ground to cover, though, if it wants to take the top spot. Todd Phillips’ Joker fostered a little over $1 billion, and with Nolan’s picture sitting at sub $800K, it certainly seems like a tall order. Regardless, even if it falls short of the supervillain feature’s box office, it still breaks grounds for Nolan, as yet another major win for the filmmaker.
When taking a look at the domestic box office alone, though, Oppenheimer tracks a bit behind, staying stagnant in seventh place behind films like Joker, American Sniper, and The Passion of the Christ. What makes the film’s success all the more fascinating is how it departs from Nolan’s typical tone, favoring a more dialogue-heavy story in its three-hour runtime.
Gabriel enjoys all things entertainment from writing about video games as the Managing Editor for PSX Extreme to covering the latest film and TV news for his own publication — Early Reel. Follow him on X.