Talk About A Long Movie — The 'Oppenheimer' Film Is Literally 11 Miles Long And Weighs 600 Pounds The WWII film about the invention of the atomic bomb is set to be the next big hit from filmmaker Christopher Nolan.
By Emily Rella
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Filmmaker Christopher Nolan's long-awaited film "Oppenheimer," which tells the story of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man who helped develop the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project in World War II, is expected to be a smash hit at the box office when it hits theaters next month.
But even though the movie is expected to have a three-hour run time, the film is raising eyebrows for a different kind of length.
According to the Associated Press, the actual IMAX film that Nolan used to shoot the saga stretches roughly 11 miles long and weighs around 600 pounds, all running through the film projector horizontally.
The movie was filmed on a combination of IMAX 65mm and Panavision 65mm, which is then projected in IMAX 70mm.
Translation for those who aren't well-versed in film: It makes for a cinematic experience that's fully immersive.
"The sharpness and the clarity and the depth of the image is unparalleled," Nolan told the outlet. "The headline, for me, is by shooting on IMAX 70mm film, you're really letting the screen disappear. You're getting a feeling of 3D without the glasses. You've got a huge screen and you're filling the peripheral vision of the audience. You're immersing them in the world of the film."
This won't be Nolan's first wartime film positioned to score big at the box office.
Nolan's 2017 film "Dunkirk," which is about the evacuation of Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk during WWII, raked in roughly $527 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film about the Second World War to date.
His 2020 film "Tenet," which tells the fictional story of a secret agent that must stop the beginning of WWIII, grossed $363.7 million worldwide.
