Oppenheimer Opens in Japan, Adding To Worldwide Box Office Total

It’s no secret Oppenheimer was one of the biggest films of 2023. Not only was the movie the third-highest-grossing movie of last year and the the second-highest-grossing Rated R movie of all time, but it was also nominated for 13 Academy Awards this year. The film ended up winning seven Oscars, including Best Picture. The movie had a surprising run at the box office, nearly $1 billion. Now, the film has hit theaters in Japan, which has added $2.5 million to its worldwide box office total.

According to Variety, Oppenheimer opened this weekend in 343 theaters, and won third place at the box office after Strange House and Haikyu!!. Universal Pictures has said it marks the biggest opening weekend for a Hollywood release in Japan in 2024 so far. While it’s not uncommon for a film to reach Japan long after its theatrical release in North America, there was speculation as to whether or not the movie would ever be released in the country due to its subject matter. The distributor Bitters End decided to pick up the film in December “following months of thoughtful dialogue associated with the subject matter.” 

According to Reuters, some of the theaters in Japan are displaying warning signs in order to alert moviegoers to the potentially triggering content. Of course, Christopher Nolan’s film chronicles Robert J. Oppenheimer’s creation of the atomic bomb.  

Christopher Nolan Says Oppenheimer‘s Success Signifies a “Post-Franchise” Movie Landscape:

During a recent appearance on the Countdown to the BAFTAs podcast, Nolan talked about how the success of Oppenheimer could point to a “post-franchise” shift in Hollywood. 

“Everybody has a tendency to talk down the movie business,” Nolan explained. “Really for the whole time I think I’ve been working in movies, I felt the sort of cultural establishment always predicting the demise of movie theaters. Now I get asked that question, you know, ‘What do I think about the health of the movie business?’ I don’t really know how to respond. We just released a three-hour, R-rated film about quantum physics and it made a billion dollars. Like what? Obviously, our view is that the audience is there and they’re excited to see something new.”

“The success of Oppenheimer certainly points to a sort of, post-IP landscape for movies … It’s kind of encouraging,” he continued. “It reminds the studios that there is an appetite for something people haven’t seen before or an approach to things that people haven’t seen before.” 

“Something like Oppenheimer working gives other filmmakers a point of reference for how something can work in the marketplace that the studio can relate to,” he added.  

Stay tuned for more box office updates.