“Barbie” has also been available as a streaming title for a few days – and is currently still running successfully in cinemas. Greta Gerwig’s mega-success opened there on July 20, 2023 alongside Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” – and the latter will remain exclusively in theaters for a while. But you don’t have to wait until Christmas, as was recently claimed.
According to circulating information, Christopher Nolan has been contractually assured by Universal that his film will play exclusively in theaters for at least 90 days before a home theater release. This period has now expired. The way would actually be clear for a streaming release.
But there would be another arrangement by which Nolan wanted to guarantee that the film would remain exclusively in cinemas for longer if it performed particularly well there. And ‘Oppenheimer’, as we all know, is very successful in the cinemas. According to rumors, the exclusive theatrical period will be extended to 120 days if “Oppenheimer” reaches certain numbers. Sometimes there were also reports that this period was even extended to 150 days, which meant that “Oppenheimer” could not be viewed at home until Christmas.
But that hasn’t been the case for so long. “Oppenheimer” has about 120 days between opening in theaters and streaming. This has now been confirmed by a woman who should know: Emma Thomas.
Confirmed: “Oppenheimer” will begin streaming in late November
Christopher Nolan’s wife and producer of all his films has now confirmed this , that “Oppenheimer” will stream worldwide at the end of November. She did not give a specific date. However, we think it is very likely that a release will take place around the 23rd/24th. November.
This agrees with our previous assumption. In any case, Rental Universal would have happily agreed to a 120-day period. It’s a time window that the distributor has also set for other bigger films this year. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Fast & Furious 10” were recently released as VoD titles approximately 120 days after their theatrical release.
“Oppenheimer” will remain a cinema event even after its home theater release
Currently you still have the opportunity to see “Oppenheimer” on the big screen – which should also be possible in the future. In particular, the analogue 70mm IMAX film copies made for the film will not languish in archives forever, but will be regularly re-released.
In any case, the expectation is that, given the current demand, distributor Universal will release ‘Oppenheimer’ in cinemas parallel to the start of streaming or bring it back into cinemas during the Oscar season. The film could eventually reach the magical box office threshold of a billion dollars. “Oppenheimer” just became the most successful biopic in history, with box office grosses of nearly $913 million.