The cultural craze of “ Barbenheimer,” complete with double features of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” two seemingly different films with matching release dates, helped to fuel not just the largest collective weekend at the box office since the pandemic, but one of the biggest of all time. Of course, “Oppenheimer” is just half of the moviegoing phenomenon that defined 2023 at the box office. Cinephiles boarded planes, trains and automobiles to witness “Oppenheimer” in Imax 70mm – available on just 30 screens across the world – and experience the movie the way Nolan intended it to be seen. “Oppenheimer” proved that not only will audiences still get excited about new movies, but they’re also willing to cross state and country lines to watch it on the best possible screen.

“Original content, rather than sequels, ruled the day in 2023,” says Richard Gelfond, the CEO of Imax.

Movie” ($1.35 billion) and “Oppenheimer” ($951 million) - were part of existing film franchises or inspired by comic books. For the first time in more than a decade, none of the three biggest movies - Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” ($1.44 billion), Universal and Illumination’s animated “The Super Mario Bros. That the film, backed by Universal and directed by Christopher Nolan, became an unmitigated box office smash only punctuates this crazy, upside-down year at the box office. Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb, is the kind of pitch that, on paper, is an insane gamble. “Oppenheimer,” a $100 million-budgeted historical drama about physicist J. Those films that did succeed emphasized the fresh over the familiar.

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