Oppenheimer overtakes Bohemian Rhapsody and becomes the highest grossing biopic of all time

Oppenheimer has officially overtaken Bohemian Rhapsody to become the highest-grossing biopic of all time.

The film charting J. Robert Oppenheimer and his mission to create the first working atomic bomb and the fallout that resulted from it has been all the rage this year.

It had to compete against 2023's biggest film, Barbie, as the two were released on the exact same day.

However, it was clearly a worthy adversary as it has pulled in more than $912 million at the box office.

The biopic about Freddie Mercury and Queen brought in $910 million during its theatrical run.

20th Century Fox

The link between the two films is that Rami Malek has appeared in both.

Bryan Singer's film ended up being nominated for a whole host of awards from the Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and other shows.

So, Oppenheimer could follow suit when the nominations start rolling out for next year's awards season.

Even if it doesn't, director Christopher Nolan is up for a big pay day.

According to reports, when Nolan signed up with Universal Pictures to make the movie, he had a set of demands that he put down.

The first was that the film would have a $100 million budget and he also wanted $100 million spent on marketing.

He requested a three to four-month cinema release and that he would get the final cut once it was finished.

However, the biggest play he made was demanding a 20 percent share of the first-dollar gross.

Betting on Oppenheimer being the hit that it is has really paid off for Nolan, who looks to have made - so far - around $180 million, which is not too shabby.

Now, he's not the only actor or director to gamble on a film's success in order to get paid.

Jack Nicholson famously did it with Batman back in the day and Leonardo DiCaprio also did the same with one of Nolan's films, Inception, when he earned a cut of the box office take, reportedly making over $50 million.

It will be interesting to see how high Oppenheimer can go at the box office and if it will break the coveted $1 billion mark.

Only time will tell.

Topics: Oppenheimer, Film and TV

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Senior Journalist at LADbible. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign. He is in charge of the LADbible Australia editorial content and social presence.

@stewartperrie