Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ Now Streaming Free on Two Platforms
Overview & Key Takeaways
2023's 'Oppenheimer' is back on streaming for free.
The Christopher Nolan-palooza continues. As the director's latest, The Odyssey, climbs the box office, his 2023 movie is now easier to access than ever. Oppenheimer is back on several streaming platforms for free (with ads).
The biopic returns to Peacock after leaving the service about a year ago. Oppenheimer's absence was a bit bizarre*,* considering it was produced by Universal Pictures, which is owned by NBCUniversal. You would think one of NBC’s biggest recent hits would be a flagship movie for its streaming platform, Peacock. In addition to being added back to Peacock, Oppenheimer is also available for free with ads on Fandango.
Oppenheimer had an incredible box office run, hitting $975 million worldwide despite being a three-hour historical biopic. Its popularity was spurred on by the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, when Nolan's movie and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie were released on the same weekend. Both were huge hits, with Barbie earning over $1.4 billion.
Like many of Christopher Nolan’s films, critics and audiences largely praised Oppenheimer, with it receiving a 93% critic score and a 91% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It went on to earn 13 nominations at the 96th Academy Awards, where it won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Cillian Murphy, Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr., Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Score. The film revived decades-long debates around the horrors of nuclear weapons, particularly regarding how the United States deployed these tools of mass destruction on civilians.
The film centers on J. Robert Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist who helped develop the first nuclear weapons. It’s based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird, following Oppenheimer during his time in college, his stint as director of the Manhattan Project’s Los Alamos Laboratory, and the post-war security hearings over his alleged “communist” activities.
Oppenheimer and The Odyssey have marked an incredible run for Christopher Nolan, and it seems fair to guess that his latest film will be a major contender during the upcoming awards season.
