BFI IMAX has reported the biggest opening weekend box office result of any screen in the UK for Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated epic, Oppenheimer, also making it the number one IMAX screen in the country with a stellar weekend gross of £207,677. This result pushes James Cameron’s global smash hit Avatar (2009) into third place in the all-time BFI IMAX rankings and comes just behind Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017).
BFI IMAX was also the second-highest grossing IMAX screen globally on the film’s opening weekend, only behind the TCL Chinese Theatre, Los Angeles, which has almost double the BFI IMAX’s capacity. BFI IMAX screenings of Oppenheimer have now almost sold out for July and are selling fast for the rest of August. The BFI will be adding further screenings in order to meet the unprecedented demand, with tickets available from the BFI IMAX website.
In anticipation of Oppenheimer’s UK release BFI IMAX programmed the Countdown to Oppenheimer: Christopher Nolan on Film season over the last few months. This proved incredibly popular with Nolan fans, embracing the director’s commitment to the IMAX format, with screenings of all of Nolan’s films shot on IMAX and projected on 70mm IMAX. All shows – including Tenet, Dunkirk, Interstellar, Inception and The Dark Knight Trilogy – were total or near total sell-outs, taking an impressive £155,006 at the box office.
Oppenheimer screened 24 hours around-the-clock at the weekend, with audiences travelling from across the country and indeed the world to queue up and be the first to see the film at the iconic BFI IMAX venue and the UK’s biggest screen. The film was shot on purpose-built IMAX cameras and the BFI IMAX is one of only three venues in the UK (and just thirty worldwide) screening Nolan’s latest opus on IMAX 70mm – as the director intended.
Greta Gerwig’s Barbie also drew an impressive result at BFI Southbank on its opening weekend, grossing £17,287 – the best ever opening weekend for a new release at the venue. Further “Barbenheimer” excitement was generated at BFI Southbank with a dedicated season The Films of Greta Gerwig, which saw a sold-out screening of Frances Ha on Friday. A few tickets remain for upcoming screenings of Greenberg, Little Women and Lady Bird, which can be found on the BFI Southbank website
