A month has passed since Oppenheimer‘s release, and the film has reached another milestone this weekend. Christopher Nolan‘s World War II biopic has earned over $717 million at the global box office, making it the fourth highest-grossing movie of 2023 worldwide.
According to Box Office Mojo, Oppenheimer has surpassed Disney’s The Little Mermaid‘s $567 million, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’s $686 million, and Fast X’s $704 million. Just above it is James Gunn‘s Marvel swansong, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which earned $845 million during its theatrical run.
Variety also reported that Oppenheimer is now Nolan’s fourth highest-grossing film of all time, passing 2014’s Interstellar ($715 million), but is just behind other blockbusters such as 2010’s Inception ($837 million), The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises, both of which sit around the $1 billion mark.
Nolan has directed two movies that not only focus on World War II (the other being Dunkirk with a $527 million haul), and both are the highest-grossing films based on this historical topic. However, Oppenheimer has a long way to go if it wants to compete with Barbie. The other half of the Barbenheimer phenomenon currently sits at $1.2 billion, and is just $1 million away from dethroning The Super Mario Bros Movie at the top spot for 2023.
Unfortunately, Nolan’s latest blockbuster faces a handicap in this worldwide box office battle as it is yet to release in Japan. This makes sense, since Oppenheimer’s work led to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Barbenheimer trend sparked outrage in the country.
Regardless, Oppenheimer is now showing in theaters, and has no plans to leave IMAX anytime soon either.