‘Oppenheimer’ Premieres In Japan

Topline

“Oppenheimer” premiered in Japanese movie theaters on Friday, eight months after its global debut and amid criticism about how the Academy Award-winning film portrayed the effects of the atomic bombs that hit the country nearly 80 years ago.

Key Facts

Chief Critic

Takashi Hiraoka, the former mayor of Hiroshima, said the “horror of nuclear weapons was not sufficiently depicted,” suggesting “Oppenheimer” was “made in a way to validate the conclusion that the atomic bomb was used to save the lives of Americans.”

Big Number

$957 million. That’s how much “Oppenheimer” earned at the global box office by the time it won the Academy Award for Best Picture earlier this month, according to BoxOfficeMojo. The film is the biggest global earner to win the academy’s top prize since “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” in 2004. That film earned $1.15 billion worldwide.

Key Background

“Oppenheimer” debuted to global audiences outside Japan in July last year, depicting the work of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer as he and other scientists developed the first nuclear weapons. The film faced backlash for the way it depicted the devastation of the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and for how the film was marketed over social media. Warner Bros. Japan said it was “extremely regrettable” that its American headquarters reacted to social media posts supporting “Barbenheimer” viewings in the U.S., including an image of a mushroom cloud superimposed on “Barbie” star Margot Robbie’s head. The film was left off Universal Studios’ global release schedule, though it was later picked up by Bitter Ends. The independent film distributor—which did not specify when it would release the film—said at the time the film “has a very important and special meaning for us Japanese people.”

Tangent

“Oppenheimer” won seven major awards—including best picture—at the 96th Academy Awards earlier this month. Christopher Nolan won his first Oscar for best director while lead Cillian Murphy won best actor. Robert Downey Jr. won best supporting actor.

Further Reading

‘Oppenheimer’ Opens In Japan Eight Months After Global Release (The Japan Times)

‘Oppenheimer’ Will Hit Japanese Movie Theaters Next Year—Here’s Why That’s A Big Deal (Forbes)