What is ‘Oppenheimer’ rated?

The creation of the atomic bomb is set to get an official cinematic retelling when Oppenheimer arrives in theaters later this year.

The 2023 flick tells the story of theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer, broadly known as the father of the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer’s work on the Manhattan Project, back in the mid-1940s, led to the production of the world’s first nuclear weapons, and irreversibly changed the way we wage war.

The cinematic retelling of Oppenheimer’s life is set to hit theaters in just a few months, and, with stellar actors like Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt at the helm, its all but guaranteed to blow audiences away. As its official release approaches, audiences are planning out their viewings of the film, which raises a few common questions about the story’s content and rating.

Oppenheimer rating

Christopher Nolan’s effort to bring Robert Oppenheimer’s story to the big screen is scheduled to arrive mid-way through the summer, with an official release date of July 21. The cinematic offering promises plenty of drama and intrigue, as it works to provide a mostly-honest retelling of the creation of our world’s most destructive weapon.

Despite a relatively close release date, Oppenheimer has yet to announce an official rating. The film is likely to fall into one of two camps, depending on content, and fans can expect it to release with either an R or PG-13 rating attached.

A PG-13 rating feels the most likely, given the contents of the film. While the story told in Oppenheimer is undeniably mature, and will inevitably contain quite a bit of death and destruction, an R rating is typically reserved for films sporting high amounts of nudity, violence, or discussion of drugs. According to the Motion Picture Association of America, most R films are classified as such due to “adult themes, adult activity, hard language, intense or persistent violence, sexually-oriented nudity, drug abuse or other elements.”

While there are sure to be plenty of adult themes in Oppenheimer, its unlikely the film will contain a large amount of intense or persistent violence, sexually-oriented nudity, drug abuse, or overmuch hard language. The film is biographical in nature, and certainly discusses a difficult topic, but it’s not likely to lean very hard into many of the elements described by the MPAA. If the film does manage to get an R rating, something that would likely occur only if it leans particularly hard into the more harrowing or graphic elements of its story, it will restrict which audiences can see it in theaters, and advise parents against allowing any children younger than 17 years old to view Oppenheimer.

Once concrete rating is released, we’ll update this article with more information.