Move over, Christopher Nolan, Barbie has taken over. While some will be sad that their dreams of an Oppenheimer-Barbie double feature have seemingly been dashed, perhaps Universal is playing the long game here.
Speaking with Variety, Cannes Film Festival’s director Thierry Fremaux implied that Oppenheimer may not, in fact, come out on its July 21 release date. When asked if there was any chance of slotting Oppenheimer into the festival’s lineup, he said, “Unfortunately no, I Would have loved [that] but it’s being released at the end of the year as part of their awards strategy.” He added, “My biggest regret this year are Oppenheimer and Barbie, but it won’t be ready either by May.”
While Universal has yet to confirm this, that would mean that Barbie occupies that weekend by its lonesome. That could be huge for Greta Gerwig’s pop culture phenomenon, and it’ll be interesting to see where Universal slots Oppenheimer given the fall/winter’s loaded release schedule full of awards hopefuls. There’s a bit of a break in late October after Killers of the Flower Moon goes wide (October 20) and Dune: Part 2 opens (November 3), but then that’s followed by two franchise flicks, The Marvels and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, in back-to-back weeks.
The other possible option is early December. As of now, Magazine Dreams is the only film slated for a wide release on December 8, and with the Jonathan Majors situation continuing, who knows how hard Searchlight will push it. Wonka will be released on December 15, followed by Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and the Ghostbusters sequel on December 20.
Oppenheimer is a biographical drama film about J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) during the Manhattan Project and the creation of the atomic bomb. The film also stars Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Rami Malek, and Florence Pugh.
The post Oppenheimer: Christopher Nolan’s epic film release date nuked appeared first on ClutchPoints.
