Hollywood star Matt Damon is having one of the best years of his career. Not only did his Netflix original thriller The Rip become the most successful movie on streaming in the first half of 2026, but his epic The Odyssey has also earned a spot among the biggest box office hits of the year. Now, the actor has reached another milestone with one of his previous projects – a $983 million Best Picture winner that stands among the actor’s best entries in his entire filmography. Despite being released in 2023, this war biopic has entered the streaming landscape and officially become the No. 1 movie on the U.S. charts.
In ‘Oppenheimer,’ Damon Shines in a Sea of Hollywood Megastars
In Oppenheimer, Damon plays the director of the Manhattan Project, General Leslie Groves, as the government creates the secret program to build nuclear weapons in the 1940s. The film follows J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) as he develops the technology behind the bombs that would eventually be dropped on Japan. Oppenheimer also centers on the government review of Oppenheimer’s past, when his relationship with communism was brought to light and the scientist experienced a public fall from grace.
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer features a formidable cast led by Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, and Robert Downey Jr. Joining them are mega-stars such as Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, and Benny Safdie, among others. If you wondered whether there was a better cast than the one Nolan compiled for The Odyssey, this might be it.
The 2023 war thriller was critically acclaimed upon release, with audiences and critics hailing it as one of the best movies of the year. After a short media frenzy when it was paired with Barbie in the cultural phenomenon known as “Barbenheimer,” Oppenheimer was a very popular topic during the awards season. After earning a 93% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, many predicted that the film would become Nolan’s long overdue win at the Oscars.
This prediction was spot-on. Oppenheimer received a whopping 13 nominations at the Academy Awards, and won in seven categories, including Best Picture and Best Director. Not exactly a bad result for Nolan and his new artistic relationship with Universal Pictures after parting ways with Warner Bros. This new deal with Universal might push the director on his way to the Oscars next year, as The Odyssey could easily become a strong contender at the awards ceremony.
Christopher Nolan’s War Masterpiece Is the Most Popular Movie on Streaming
Three years after its original release, Oppenheimer has become a hit with audiences again. By the time of writing, it sits in the No. 1 spot on the top-10 list of most-watched movies on the VOD platform Vudu. Recent hits like Toy Story 5 and Minions & Monsters are also part of the list. However, there’s a curious pattern in the charts, as viewers seem to be revisiting older titles as well, with Predator, Armageddon, and Speed also sitting among the most popular movies on Vudu.
Release Date
July 21, 2023
Runtime
181 minutes