3 Years After Making Box Office History, Christopher Nolan's Most Ambitious WWII Epic Surges on Streaming

Image via Universal

Published Mar 20, 2026, 2:20 PM EDT

Adam Blevins began working in the entertainment industry in 2022 as a Staff Writer for Agents of Fandom, where he progressed to Senior Editor and interviewed talent from Marvel Studios, House of the Dragon, and Planet of the Apes. He joined Collider as a News Author in April 2024, was promoted to a Senior position in December 2024, and has written over 3,000 articles for the site, including exclusives relating to Avengers: Doomsday, The Penguin, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, and more. He primarily writes about the latest box office numbers and the hottest movies and TV shows on streaming, while also covering superhero and sci-fi news. He has completed a set visit for The Chosen and even has several months of experience writing Gaming Features at ScreenRant. You can find him on X, LinkedIn, and Muckrack.

The World War II genre has been one of the most popular worldwide for years, with massive hits like Saving Private Ryan proving worthy of recognition. The star (Tom Hanks) and director (Steven Spielberg) even reunited a few years ago for a new WWII miniseries on Apple TV, Masters of the Air, starring Callum Turner and Austin Butler. 2025 brought on one of the most anticipated WWII movies of the last few years with Nuremberg, which is more of a legal thriller than a traditional blockbuster action movie. The film stars Russell Crowe, and although many fans felt he deserved an Oscar nod for his performance, the Academy Awards came and went without any mention of his name. Still, the popularity of the WWII genre lives on.

Over the years, there have been some WWII movies that have scored big at the box office, but none have reached the heights of Oppenheimer. The historical epic is a dramatization of the life and work of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man who helped the United States develop the atomic bomb for use on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Christopher Nolan directed the Best Picture-winning feature, which stars a pair of Oscar-winners, Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr, both of whom took home Academy Awards for their performances in the film. Universal footed a $100 million bill for the making of Oppenheimer, which proved to be a worthwhile investment when the film grossed $975 million at the global box office. Now nearly three years removed from Oppenheimer’s release, the film is back on top of global streaming charts on HBO Max. It does not currently have a streaming home in America, but it will likely return to one of the big streamers in the next few months.

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By Macklen Makhloghi

What Do We Know About Christopher Nolan’s Next Movie?

Christopher Nolan’s next movie, The Odyssey, will premiere exclusively in theaters on July 17. The film stars Tom Holland, who will also star in a new Spider-Man movie opening two weeks later. Matt Damon, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, and many more have also been tapped to star in The Odyssey, which is angling to be one of the most ambitious historical epics of all time. After his success with Oppenheimer, it’s safe to say expectations are painfully high for Christopher Nolan with The Odyssey.

Oppenheimer is not currently streaming in the U.S., but is available on VOD platforms like Prime Video. Stay tuned to Collider for more streaming updates and coverage of Nolan’s future projects.