FOR FILMMAKERS, 'OPPENHEIMER'S' $900M-PLUS HAUL IS AN IMPORTANT MOMENT FOR HOLLYWOOD AND THEATERS

Hopes were always high for Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer. The studio knew the film was great, and commercial. But no one in the industry expected that a long, talky, R-rated drama released at the height of the summer movie season would earn over $900 million at the box office.

After an early screening," Dune" filmmaker Denis Villeneuve said he knew he'd just seen "a masterpiece." He even remembered saying that it would be a big success.

“But where it is right now has blown the roof off of my projection,” Villeneuve told. “It’s a three-hour movie about people talking about nuclear physics.”

This week, “Oppenheimer’s” global total was nearly $913 million, making it Nolan’s third highest grossing film, trailing only the “Dark Knight” sequels. It’s also the third biggest film of the year behind “Barbie” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and the most successful biopic ever, surpassing “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It’s a staggering sum that has been driven by audiences of all ages and an enthusiasm for film and large format screenings.

“When you make a film, you hope that you’re going to connect with an audience in some form or another,” “Oppenheimer” producer Emma Thomas told the AP. “But, particularly with a three-hour film that has a serious subject and is challenging in many ways, this sort of success is beyond our wildest imaginings.”

Even after nine weeks in theaters, 11 of the 25 screens capable of projecting the coveted IMAX 70mm prints ( Nolan’s preferred format ) continued to play the film on some of the busiest screens, like the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles and the AMC Lincoln Square in New York.

“The reason we’re still in those theaters is because the audience is demanding it,” Thomas said. “This is not something that we can impose — I wish we could, but it’s genuine.”