What is the age rating for Oppenheimer? Age suitability explained
Christopher Nolan's epic finally arrived in UK cinemas this weekend, but which age is it suitable for?
The so-called Barbenheimer effect reached fever pitch in the UK over the weekend as Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie finally arrived in cinemas.
While Barbie came out on top in the box office race, raking in a massive $155 million (£120m) in North American cinemas and landing the biggest opening weekend of the year, Oppenheimer still took $80.5m (£60m), making it Nolan’s biggest non-Batman debut.
Internationally, Barbie earned $337m globally, while Oppenheimer amassed a $174.2m global total.
Nolan’s new biopic tells the true story of American physicist J Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) and his involvement in the Manhattan Project, which led to the creation of the atomic bomb.
Given the film’s difficult subject matter, naturally many are wondering whether Oppenheimer is suitable for kids.
Read on for everything you need to know, including the official guidance given by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).
Oppenheimer age rating UK
In the UK, Oppenheimer has been given a 15 rating by the BBFC for “strong language and sex”.
In the US, the movie has earned an R rating for “sexuality, nudity, and language”, meaning that anyone under the age of 17 will require an adult guardian to accompany them if they want to see the film in cinemas.
Oppenheimer’s R-rating appears to stem from the movie’s graphic sex scenes.
Cillian Murphy previously spoke about this detail interview with The Guardian where he mentioned there is “prolonged full nudity” in a scene featuring Oppenheimer and his lover Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh).
It marks Nolan’s first R-rated film since 2002’s Insomnia.
Read more:
- Was J Robert Oppenheimer a member of the Communist Party?
- What was J Robert Oppenheimer’s relationship to Albert Einstein?
- Where was Oppenheimer filmed? Filming locations explained
- How did Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer film atomic bomb sequences?
- Who was Kitty Oppenheimer? Oppenheimer’s Emily Blunt role explained
- Who was Jean Tatlock? Oppenheimer’s Florence Pugh role explained
- Who was Lewis Strauss? Robert Downey Jr role in Oppenheimer explained
- Who was Leslie Groves? Matt Damon’s Oppenheimer role explained
Oppenheimer is in UK cinemas now. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on tonight.
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Authors
Molly Moss is a Trends Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest trends across TV, film and more. She has an MA in Newspaper Journalism and has previously written for publications including The Guardian, The Times and The Sun Online.
