Oppenheimer box office: Earns Rs. 58.50 crores in first weekend in India, Seventh highest ever for Hollywood

Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer' astounds Indian box office, earning Rs. 58.50 crores in its opening weekend, making it seventh highest weekend ever for Hollywood.

By Jatinder Singh

Updated on Jul 24, 2023 | 05:42 PM IST | 225.1K

Oppenheimer box office (image courtesy Universal Studios)

Oppenheimer wrapped up its first weekend in India with Rs. 58.60 crores. There wasn't any growth in collections on Sunday, but this is a normal thing to happen for Hollywood films especially ones which do lesser business in dubbed versions, as the business slows down in bigger centres on Sunday nights. The decline is often compensated by the Hindi version which grows on Sunday in smaller centres, but those where the Hindi version business is limited can see a drop on Sunday, which is the case with Oppenheimer as well.

Just like opening day, Oppenheimer now holds the seventh-highest opening weekend or 3 days total for a Hollywood film. The weekend record list is a bit convoluted, as some of the films had mid-week launches instead of traditional Friday, of those some have a higher first three days biz while some have a higher Friday-Sunday total. By either count, Oppenheimer's debut places it as the seventh biggest opening ever for Hollywood in India.

In India, the biggest Hollywood hits are predominantly action-adventure franchise films, for a 3-hour talky drama to put these numbers is simply unimaginable. Credit goes to the film’s director Christopher Nolan, who commands a passionate following in India. However, even with that following, he never generated this sort of number, especially in terms of openings. The first weekend numbers are nearly 4 times that of his last normal release, Dunkirk. In fact, Oppenheimer is already the highest grosser for the director in India, in just three days of release, beating his previous best of Rs. 55.50 crores by The Dark Knight Rises and Rs. 50 crores by Interstellar. The film has incredible advance sales for the IMAX format, with near-sold-out shows all the way in August. The film should comfortably cross the Rs. 100 crores gross mark and may go on to challenge Fast X for the highest-grossing Hollywood film in India this year.

The box office collections of Oppenheimer at the Indian box office are as follows:

Friday: Rs. 17.60 crores
Saturday: Rs. 20.50 crores
Sunday: Rs. 20.50 crores

Total: Rs. 58.60 crores

India has proven to be the best-performing international market for Oppenheimer, boasting a $7 million weekend. This places India as the second highest-grossing overseas market for the film, trailing only behind the United Kingdom, which earned $14 million. Remarkably, India's performance outshined bigger Hollywood markets like France, Australia, and Germany, despite the latter having the advantage of a four or five-day weekend. When ticket sales are considered, it gets even better, with more than 2.20 million admits, India even outperformed the United Kingdom (1.10 million).

About Oppenheimer Movie

Oppenheimer is a biographical thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, on the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist who was pivotal in developing the first nuclear weapons as part of the Manhattan Project. Cillian Murphy stars as the titular character, with Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer's wife, Matt Damon as General Leslie Groves, and Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss. Other members of the cast include Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, and Kenneth Branagh.