Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer will get a theatrical release in Japan in 2024 following months of uncertainty after the Barbenheimer movement sparked significant backlash.
As reported by Variety, Bitters End, the movie’s distributor in Japan, released a statement on December 7 explaining the decision to screen Oppenheimer in the country had been made “following months of thoughtful dialogue associated with the subject matter and acknowledging the particular sensitivity for us Japanese”.
The indie firm did not specify an exact date for the theatrical opening of Oppenheimer but said it would be on the big screen next year. It invited “the audience to watch the film with their own eyes” following some controversy surrounding the Barbenheimer phenomenon over the summer.
The simultaneous release of Warner Bros. Pictures’ Barbie and Universal Pictures’ Oppenheimer in theatres triggered some social media users to create memes, mashups, and more, playing on the extreme contrast of the two movies but later faced criticism for trivializing the destruction caused by atomic bombs.
As more and more viral images emerged connecting the beloved children’s toy to weapons of mass destruction, users started calling out those embracing the trend for potentially causing harm with insensitive jokes making light of real-life tragedies, prompting a #NoBarbenheimer hashtag to trend on X/Twitter.
Warner Bros. Film Group offered an apology for its “insensitive” social media activity regarding Barbenheimer after the studio’s Japan branch criticized its U.S. counterpart for publishing some “extremely regrettable” posts and engaging in a series of “inconsiderate” reactions to memes featuring atom bomb images.
Oppenheimer arrived in theaters in the U.S. and the UK on July 21, but the film never received a release date in Japan. It ended up grossing nearly $950 million worldwide, per Box Office Mojo, and shattered countless records, overtaking other titles to become Nolan’s best opening for a non-Batman movie.
IGN’s 10/10 review of Oppenheimer called the film “a full-tilt biopic unlike any before it,” with “themes of guilt writ large through apocalyptic IMAX nightmares that grow both more enormous and more intimate as time ticks on,” creating “a disturbing, mesmerizing vision of what humanity is capable of bringing upon itself.”
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X @AdeleAnkers.
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