“Oppenheimer” Breaks Two-Decade Box Office Record, Winning Best Picture at the Oscars

Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” broke a years-long streak at the Academy Awards, winning Best Picture and six additional prizes, marking a departure from the trend of small-budget or independent films taking the top honor.

KEY FACTS

• According to BoxOfficeMojo, “Oppenheimer” grossed $957 million globally, making it the highest-earning film to win the Academy’s top prize since “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” in 2004, which garnered $1.15 billion worldwide.
• With a domestic box office of $329 million, the biopic about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer is also the highest-earning U.S. winner for Best Picture since “The Return of the King.”
• The last film to both win Best Picture at the Oscars and exceed $100 million at the U.S. box office was 2012’s “Argo,” with a domestic total of $136 million.

BIG NUMBER

 $100 million. “Oppenheimer” had an estimated budget of $100 million, making it one of the highest-budget films to win the Best Picture Oscar recently. The 2006 crime drama “The Departed” with a budget of around $90 million is the most recent winner with a comparable budget. Since then, “Argo” is the only Best Picture winner with an estimated budget exceeding $25 million.

NEWS PEG 

The biopic concluded a successful awards season by securing seven prizes at the Academy Awards. Alongside the Best Picture win, Nolan received Best Director, and Cillian Murphy, who portrayed Oppenheimer, won Best Actor. Robert Downey Jr. received Best Supporting Actor, and the film also earned accolades for Cinematography, Original Score, and Editing. These victories mark a first for Nolan, one of the highest-grossing directors in history with many critically acclaimed films.

KEY BACKGROUND 

Recent Oscar ceremonies have favored smaller-budget films with modest box office earnings. Last year’s winner, “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” grossed $143 million globally. The 2019 winner, “Parasite,” and the 2018 film “Green Book” were the only Best Picture winners in the last decade to surpass $200 million at the global box office. The Oscars faced criticism for being out of touch with audiences, leading to changes, such as expanding the Best Picture nominees from five to ten in 2009, prompted by the snubbing of Nolan’s 2008 blockbuster “The Dark Knight.”