Warner Bros. more grateful than ever for ‘Barbie’ as ‘Oppenheimer’ earns more at the box office than the DCEU’s last 4 movies combined

Having let Christopher Nolan slip through its fingers and head off to pastures new following the end of an incredibly fruitful creative partnership that spanned two decades, Warner Bros. must be breathing a pretty huge sigh of relief that it finally dragged Barbie out of development hell with Greta Gerwig at the helm.

Having recently passed Bohemian Rhapsody at the global box office to add another impressive accolade to its collection as both the highest-grossing biopic and straightforward drama in the history of cinema – even more incredible when you consider its R-rating and three-hour runtime – Oppenheimer has now earned more at the box office than the last four installments in WB’s DCEU combined.

The margins are mighty fine, to be fair, and there’s still a chance Blue Beetle can keep on trucking and ensure the unwanted statistic doesn’t get etched in the history books, but that doesn’t make it any less insane. Between them, Jaime Reyes’ origin story, Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam, all-star multiversal epic The Flash, and sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods could barely even make it past $900 million.

By the end of today, Oppenheimer will be hovering around $915 million all on its lonesome, with Nolan continuing to prove that his name alone is about as guaranteed a barometer of success as you’ll find in the whole of Hollywood. It’s even more ironic when you remember the Dark Knight trilogy architect worked with Zack Snyder during the development of Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, making him an early contributor to a saga he’s summarily destroyed at his former home studio.