Oppenheimer’s Very Expensive Budget Revealed by Christopher Nolan

After months of predictions, Oppenheimer‘s expensive budget has finally been revealed. 

Christopher Nolan’s latest film is finally set to hit theaters, telling the story of the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer.

The movie has already had heaps of praise upon it, becoming one of the year’s best-reviewed films. But one particular thing has become clear – this was a very expensive movie to make.

Whether it is the movie’s “rich ensemble cast” or its “awe-inspiring” scale, Oppenheimer was no small investment from Universal, but just how big the buy-in had to be has remained unclear, up to this point. 

Oppenheimer’s Pricey Budget Confirmed

Recent comments from Christopher Nolan, have indicated Oppenheimer‘s 80% more expensive than initial estimates. 

Speaking with Variety, the famed director revealed his upcoming nuclear-era epic is “a $180 million movie,” noting that its runtime was nearly identical to that of Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame:

“The runtime is two minutes shorter than ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ so we cling to that. I said to (producer) Emma Thomas very early on that it’s going to be a three-hour film. I have to write a script that reflects that. That was our conversation with the studio. It’s a big story and needs a big talent. It’s a 180-page script and it’s a $180 million movie.”

Early predictions had pegged Oppenheimer as a $100 million movie, but that figure seems to have been a little lean. 

While $180 million is a very pretty penny, it does not rank as the director’s most expensive film. That honor goes to his Dark Knight trilogy-closer, The Dark Knight Rises, which cost $230 million to make. 

A full list of Nolan’s films and their production budgets can be seen below:

• Following – $6,000
• Memento – $9 million
• Insomnia – $46 million
• Batman Begins – $150 million
• The Prestige – $40 million
• The Dark Knight – $185 million
• Inception – $160 million
• The Dark Knight Rises – $230 million
• Interstellar – $165 million
• Dunkirk – $150 million
• Tenet – $205 million
• Oppenheimer – $180 million

Why Was Oppenheimer So Expensive?

Since Christopher Nolan changed the world of super-powered movie-making with The Dark Knight, he has not made a film with a production budget of less than $150 million. 

If a studio wants a Nolan movie, that $150 million mark is simply the cost of doing business.

But why exactly did Oppenheimer, a film that in premise sounds smaller than some of Nolan’s other works, cost so much?

Well, much of that budget likely went toward the film’s stacked ensemble cast. A payroll that included names like Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, and Florence Pugh does not sound cheap. 

Plus, add in the fact that this is a movie that includes a recreation of a nuclear explosion and seemingly contains zero CGI shots (via Collider), and one can see where a lot of that $180 million went to. 

This is just the cost of making a big-screen blockbuster these days. For comparison, the recently released The Flash reportedly cost upwards of $220 million to make. 

So, even though Oppenheimer‘s budget came in $80 million above what was originally predicted, it is still nowhere near the most expensive movie of the summer. 

Oppenheimer comes to theaters worldwide on Friday, July 21.