Oppenheimer’s Rotten Tomatoes Score Just Broke a Christopher Nolan Record

Even though Christopher Nolan is responsible for putting out some of the biggest and most praised films of the 21st century, his latest flick, Oppenheimer, just broke a Rotten Tomatoes record.

Oppenheimer is one of a few blockbusters that will be hitting theaters this summer. Releasing on July 21, it will be going head-to-head with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie in a battle between two extremely different films.

Nolan’s upcoming movie stars Cillian Murphy in the lead role as physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. It follows the American scientist during World War II as he attempts to create the atomic bomb.

Oppenheimer Becomes Highest-Rated Christopher Nolan Film

Rotten Tomatoes recently released the official Tomatometer critics’ score for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film, Oppenheimer.

The director is notorious for making films that are praised by both critics and audiences alike, but Oppenheimer‘s 96% is officially the highest score in Nolan’s filmography.

Nolan’s 2008 superhero smash hit, The Dark Knight, previously held the record for the filmmaker’s highest-rated film at 94%, and since that film is so highly regarded, Oppenheimer being rated 2% higher is no small feat.

For the 3-hour movie to be officially Certified Fresh by Rotten Tomatoes it will need at least 80 reviews. As of right now it sits at 75, but fans can expect the Certified Fresh badge to be attached to the film extremely soon.

Oppenheimer‘s incredibly high Rotten Tomatoes score becomes even more impressive when taking into regard how highly his other films are rated on the platform.

For example, Nolan has nine films with an 80% or higher critic score including Oppenheimer:

• Following (1998) – 82%
• Memento (2000) – 93%
• Insomnia (2002) – 92%
• Batman Begins (2004) – 84%
• The Dark Knight (2008) – 94%
• Inception (2010) – 87%
• The Dark Knight Rises (2012) – 87%
• Dunkirk (2017) – 92%
• Oppenheimer (2023) – 96%

The other three movies in Nolan’s filmography that aren’t quite at 80% or higher weren’t poorly received films, however. It is also important to note that two of the remaining three (The Prestige and Interstellar) are even in IMDb’s top 50 films of all time:

• The Prestige (2006) – 76%
• Interstellar (2014) – 73%
• Tenet (2020) – 69%

Is Oppenheimer Christopher Nolan’s Greatest Film?

Many critics that have already had the pleasure of watching Oppenheimer have called it Nolan’s best film to date and even praised it as being an incredible achievement in cinema.

Obviously, any type of film is subjective and depends on the viewer, but with such high reviews, it may generally be regarded as the filmmaker’s magnum opus.

Nolan recently stated in an interview that he intends on creating more movies for the foreseeable future, and if Oppenheimer is such a crowning achievement for the director, many fans may wonder if any of his future titles will be able to blow the audience away like his upcoming film is projected to.

It is a reasonable question, but Nolan has proved in the past that he can continuously outdo himself across many different genres.

When Memento was released in 2000 it was unlike anything that had been achieved in film before, but Nolan then raised the bar in 2008 when he filmed The Dark Knight. That title was and still is widely regarded as not only one of the greatest comic book movies of all time but one of the best pictures in general (it is the third-highest-rated movie in IMDb history).

Nolan then put himself on another level with 2017’s Dunkirk, an intense World War II movie that many regard as one of the best of the war film genre.

With Oppenheimer now seemingly regarded as better than any of the three previously mentioned movies, it seems as though the director has one-upped himself again.

With that being said, fans shouldn’t worry about the future of Nolan’s filmmaking. Throughout his career, he has continued to produce success after success, and whatever project he decides to tackle next it can be expected that he will put every ounce of effort into making it great.

Oppenheimer will be officially released in theaters on Friday, July 21.