Posted in: Movies, Universal | Tagged: christopher nolan, oppenheimer, universal

How Oppenheimer, A Movie About Creating Destruction, "Healed" Theaters

Oppenheimer, a film about one of the greatest forms of destruction we have committed as humans, is "healing" the theater industry.

"I would call this is nature's way of healing," director Paul Thomas Anderson said to the Associated Press. The theatrical industry seemingly couldn't be stopped in 2018/2019, and while some people knew that some form of a downward trend had to happen in 2020, no one could have foreseen the pandemic. The movie industry had to come to terms with the streaming question, something that they had been putting off for years, and there wasn't any time for anyone to think about it because of the circumstances. Measures were taken, some better than others, and the industry made it through some tough years. This year, the conversation is dominated by two films, Barbie and Oppenheimer. While Barbie's success cannot be understated and a movie like that becoming a movement is really something, Oppenheimer being as big as it is indicates something else. "Healing," as Anderson would say, for an industry that has been wounded for the last couple of years.

Oppenheimer Doing Well Is A Win For Everyone

Oppenheimer is creeping toward the one billion mark at the worldwide box office with only Barbie and The Super Mario Bros. Movie ahead of it. The R-rated biopic shares the 2023 box office top ten at the time of writing, with massive franchises, sequels, and remakes. The other original film on the list, Elemental, comes from Pixar, and animated movies always trend higher because of the wider audience. So, to say that Oppenheimer sticks out like a sore thumb would be an understatement, and it proves there is not only an audience for bid-budget historical films but also films made explicitly for IMAX. Dune director Denis Villeneuve told the AP he knew the film was a "masterpiece" from the moment he saw it, but also holds firm that the future of theatrical viewing is on the biggest screens.

"The future of cinema is IMAX and the large formats," Villeneuve said. "The audience wants to see something that they cannot have at home, that they cannot have on streaming. They want to experience an event."

The theatrical experience is what movie theaters had to bring back in a post-COVID-19 world where people could wait for their favorite film to come to PVOD or a streaming service. They had to provide something that no one [at least no one that isn't in the top .01%, you know there is some billionaire out there with a Dolby Atmos sound system theater in their mansion] could get anywhere else. Oppenheimer is a film that pushed hard for IMAX and is one of the reasons that Barbie is only just getting the chance to play on IMAX screens this week; Oppenheimer has dominated the large format for weeks, and you don't get that sort of domination without playing to a large audience. Producer Emma Thomas explained that people are dismissing teenagers, and the success of Oppenheimer shows that even a heavy movie can do well with a wide audience.

"We have teenagers, and everyone's sort of dismissing them as potential audiences," Thomas said. "They think they're just not into long-form storytelling or big ideas, and that's complete nonsense. … It's just been incredibly touching, honestly, to hear people talk about the film and hear about young people going to see it multiple times."

The success of Oppenheimer is being felt across the movie industry, and directors who genuinely believe in theatrical experience and large format specifically are feeling more optimistic than ever that the industry is not going anywhere anytime soon. Anderson described people driving eighteen hours to see Oppenheimer in the best possible format: you can't deny stories like that, and you can't deny the number, too. As the AP says, "Twenty-four of the 25 top-earning theaters showing "Oppenheimer" played it in IMAX 70mm or 70mm."

When it comes to big events like Oppenheimer, people in Hollywood are much more likely to celebrate the success stories rather than revel in the failures of competition. There are no bad feelings like that between directors, and even studios aren't as "the Sharks and the Jets" as people think. When one film does well, it can potentially lift up the entire industry. Oppenheimer, a three-hour rated-R biopic [or as Villeneuve put it, "It's a three-hour movie about people talking about nuclear physics."] in the top five of the year, pushing toward a billion is a win for everyone, no matter what team you're batting for.

Barbie is a win for the industry because it shows how a film can truly take over the world in every aspect, and you can take risks with established IP and come out on top. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a win for the industry because it shows that animation is still a force to be reckoned with, and knowing your audience when creating your film, instead of trying to talk down to them, is always the way to go. Oppenheimer is a win for the industry because it proves that despite the pandemic, there is still a vicious audience for films in large formats that aren't based on established IP and aren't easy watches for your audience. All three prove that the audience for movies is still vast, diverse, and not something you can try to please with one film alone, so studios will have to continue to produce diverse slates if they want to be successful and that, as audience members, is a massive win for us.

Oppenheimer: Release Date, Summary, Cast List

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer is an IMAX®-shot epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it. It was released in theaters on July 21, 2023.

The film stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Emily Blunt as his wife, biologist, and botanist Katherine "Kitty" Oppenheimer. Oscar® winner Matt Damon portrays General Leslie Groves Jr., director of the Manhattan Project, and Robert Downey, Jr. plays Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Academy Award® nominee Florence Pugh plays psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, Benny Safdie plays theoretical physicist Edward Teller, Michael Angarano plays Robert Serber, and Josh Hartnett plays pioneering American nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence.

Oppenheimer also stars Oscar® winner Rami Malek and reunites Nolan with eight-time Oscar® nominated actor, writer, and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh. The cast includes Dane DeHaan (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets), Dylan Arnold (Halloween franchise), David Krumholtz (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story) and Matthew Modine (The Dark Knight Rises).

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!