Oppenheimer and the cult of the Brainy Blockbuster

As Christopher Nolan’s historical biopic storms the box office, Geoffrey Macnab explores the films that found commercial success while still challenging audiences intellectually

Cillian Murphy as Robert J Oppenheimer. At first glance, it seems such a surprise that Christopher Nolan was allowed to embark on a project as ambitious and eggheaded (Universal Pictures)

Cillian Murphy, star of current box office hit Oppenheimer, recently explained how he had known all along that Christopher Nolan’s cerebral new feature would connect with audiences. “It is, thematically, so huge. All the questions it poses, these huge ethical, moral paradoxes. It’s kind of massive…” the actor told host Marc Maron on the WTF podcast. “I love the way he [Nolan] presupposes a level of intelligence in the audience. He knows the audiences aren’t dummies and he knows the audience can keep up. He knows the audience wants to be provoked and challenged.”

Indeed, Oppenheimer makes heavy demands on viewers. It is a biopic of the theoretical physicist who led the US efforts in building the first atomic bomb. Shot in 70mm, the film features spectacular and disturbing sequences of nuclear blasts, but any action is contained within 10 minutes of its three-hour runtime. Much of the drama instead involves scientists, politicians and military personnel in labs, offices and courtrooms, talking and talking. This, then, is not Iron Man or Star Wars – yet Oppenheimer has made over $200m globally in ticket sales during the first four days of release, a staggering figure rarely achieved outside franchise epics and Marvel movies.

There is a long tradition of artistically complex films winning Best Picture Oscars but, as was the case with Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), Coda (2021) and Nomadland (2020), these tend to be made on relatively small budgets, certainly not with the $100m pot Nolan reportedly dipped into for Oppenheimer. Their box office returns were modest, too. When it comes to commissioning blockbusters, Hollywood studio executives are generally thought to have a very low opinion of their customers’ intelligence. And they are far more interested in getting a return on their investment than they are in wrestling with big ideas about politics, war, communism, and nuclear fission. The result is what Martin Scorsese has disparagingly referred to as “theme park” cinema: popcorn movies for distracted viewers in which superheroes save the world, dinosaurs run amok, sharks snack on surfers, and intrepid astronauts travel to galaxies far, far away.