Photo © Universal Pictures
Oppenheimer
Cillian Murphy in ‘Oppenheimer’
Oppenheimer’s box-office success, and its lead in the Oscar race with 13 nominations, is a glimmer of hope for cinema as an out-of-your-house, big screen picture show experience. Psychologically complex and concerned with important subjects, Oppenheimer filled movie houses in many nations (let’s not call them “markets”), and converged with that subversive candy-colored confection, Barbie, to form a phenomenon dubbed “Barbenheimer.” If not for “Barbenheimer,” 2023 would have been just another summer of sequels and superheroes.
It's not remarkable that a film about splitting the atom and the ethics of atomic warfare should be showered with Oscar nominations. Lighter fare has always been given the back hand by the Academy. Barbie did receive eight nominations (including Best Picture but not Best Director), but since the first Oscar night in 1929, the Academy has endeavored to remind audiences that films can be important, devoted to life and death as well as popcorn and pleasure. So of course, Oppenheimer will be honored this year. What’s remarkable is that a film of such seriousness and moral ambiguity could gross $952 million at box offices worldwide. Although Barbie (and The Super Mario Bros.) filled more seats, it’s still an outstanding take for a challenging movie in 2023.
The high performance in theaters of Oppenheimer (and Barbie for that matter) occurred in a doubtful climate for the movie industry. Moviegoers did return after Covid restrictions were lifted, but there just aren’t as many of them as there once were. Recent events in Milwaukee show how it’s hurting theater business. In 2023, Landmark Theatres shuttered Milwaukee’s oldest cinema, the venerable Downer Theater; and Marcus closed Southgate, Saukville and Showtime. This year, the Times Cinema will transition into a “special events” venue and the Fox Bay announced plans to return, but as a “flexible event space.” One bit of good news: the Rosebud will reopen as a movie house.
The dollar amount spent on movie tickets appears to be recovering to pre-Covid levels, but those numbers look less impressive alongside another statistic making the rounds—the 34 percent drop in ticket sales from 2019 to 2023. Many adults are drawn to cinemas only by special event films (Oppenheimer, Barbie) or for a place to park the kids (The Super Mario Bros.). Streaming “content” from the comfort of one’s own sofa is usually cited the culprit, but the shrinking of Hollywood’s imagination is another factor. The big studios (components of bigger financial interests) seldom look beyond the bottom line. Having little imagination and less courage, Hollywood’s decisionmakers go for what they see as good bets in the high-stakes game of profit maintenance—usually repetition through sequels and prequels and pre-sold properties. Some of this has to do with selling tickets in huge overseas markets where simple, subtitled dialogue is the key. And yet, Oppenheimer did good business in China.
But let’s not entirely blame the studios for their business practices. Mediocrity sells. That’s nothing new, but there were periods when audiences demanded more. Have our expectations (and imaginations?) been shrinking? But let’s look at that again: judging by falling ticket sales, maybe mediocrity isn’t selling like it used to? Without “Barbenheimer,” it might have been a slow summer season.
The success of Poor Things also gives pause to pessimism about film audiences. Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos’ surreal film won 11 Oscar nominations (including Best Picture and Best Director), second only to Oppenheimer, and has grossed more than $80 million at box offices worldwide. Unlike the massive PR campaigns behind Oppenheimer and Barbie, Poor Things opened in limited release and expanded into wider circulation with word of mouth and good reviews. This was the way many great or at least interesting films found their audience in the ‘70s, Hollywood’s last golden age. Maybe this will remind Hollywood executives that you don’t need superheroes (or big ad budgets) to sell a movie.
Oscar predictions? Oppenheimer will win Best Picture and Christopher Nolan Best Director. Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction) will contend with Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers) for Best Actor and Emma Stone (Poor Things) with Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) for Best Actress. And Barbie? Costume and Production Design?
