What has boosted tourism in Oak Ridge? The "Oppenheimer" movie, which returns Dec. 8

Tourism and hotel occupancy in Oak Ridge this past summer and early fall rose by at least 10% compared with the numbers for the previous year, according to Katy Watt, president of the Oak Ridge Convention & Visitors Bureau, also known as Explore Oak Ridge.

The uptick is being attributed partly to a national increase in post-pandemic travel and partly to the showing of Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster movie “Oppenheimer,” based on the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of Los Alamos (N.M.) Scientific Laboratory and the scientific director of the Manhattan Project who oversaw the creation of the atomic bombs that led to the end of World War II.

The movie will be shown again at the Cinemark Tinseltown Theater in Oak Ridge Dec. 8-14, and possibly beyond. The biopic is the highest grossing World War II-era movie ever with its earnings of $948 million so far.

“We call last summer’s visitation increase the Oppenheimer Effect,” said D. Ray Smith, city historian and writer-editor of the weekly "Historically Speaking" column in The Oak Ridger. That was one of his responses to Cynthia C. Kelly, president of the Atomic Heritage Foundation, who had been preparing a newsletter largely focused on the impact of the "Oppenheimer" movie on the Manhattan Project National Historical Park visitor sites at Oak Ridge and Los Alamos, New Mexico.

At both sites the number of visitors from May through October 2023 more than doubled the tally for the same months in 2022, according to data sent to this reporter.

Increase in visits to museums in Oak Ridge

Alan Lowe, executive director of both the American Museum of Science and Energy and the K-25 History Center, said that in June and July, when the movie premiered, AMSE experienced a 36% increase in visitors and the K-25 History Center saw a 22% increase compared with the same weeks in 2022.

“The terrific movie sparked interest in Oppenheimer and Manhattan Project sites like Oak Ridge,” Lowe added. “We advertised before every showing of the movie in the Oak Ridge and Knoxville area for several weeks. That helped us gain new and repeat audiences."

He noted that the AMSE Foundation used the “Oppenheimer” movie release to encourage visitation to the museum. “We offered discounted admission to AMSE with the return of a movie ticket stub. AMSE received approximately 250 ticket stubs for the 'Oppenheimer' discount.”

The increase in the number of visitors at both museums this past summer may also have been affected by Lowe’s AMSE Science Report on WUOT-FM every Saturday just after 9:30 a.m. as part of the popular NPR news program hosted by Scott Simon. Lowe said his segment “is helping spread the word about AMSE and the K-25 History Center, and it is a great way to accomplish our educational mission.”

“We had four bus tours that we never worked with before that brought groups here on their way to the mountains or another destination,” Watt said. “These groups just wanted to go to a couple of museums and have lunch. About 175 people were on those four tours.

“We had a 11% increase of visitors coming to the Visitors Bureau. Most of the visitors said they were visiting Oak Ridge because the movie sparked their interest in the whole story. Several weeks ago, 10 people came here from Los Alamos wanting to see what is in Oak Ridge. Occupancy in our hotels is up 10% in the first quarter of the fiscal year," she said.

Karla Mullins, Oak Ridge History Museum director, said, “In July and August of 2023, there was a 35% and 26% increase in our museum attendance over our 2022 numbers. I do think the higher July and August numbers verify the ‘bounce’ in public interest generated by the 'Oppenheimer' movie and the media discussions about it, as well.”

She stated that two visitors cited the movie as the reason why they came to visit the museum, adding that she “had frequent discussions with our visitors about Oppenheimer, the movie and his influence on the Manhattan Project.”

Smith said, “My personal involvement in leading tours has increased significantly from eight tours this year prior to July 21, when the movie was first shown nationally, and 16 tours since. I realize the early part of the year is considered ‘off season,’ but still I believe the level of tours for summer and fall here has increased significantly.”

Niki Stephanie Nicholas, site manager of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, sent data indicating that the number of visitors to the Oak Ridge and Los Alamos park sites combined averaged more than twice the number who visited the two sites the previous year from May through October. The Oak Ridge site exhibits are hosted at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge.

The combined total at the two park sites in September was up by 97% and in October, by 79%. More of the increase took place at Los Alamos than Oak Ridge (2,490 vs. 1495 for September, and 4,171 vs. 1,404 for October). In May, June and August, the Oak Ridge park site had more visitors than did the Los Alamos site, but Los Alamos received more visitors in July, September and October.

In June, the number of visitors to the Oak Ridge park site increased from 914 in 2022 to 2,960 in 2023; in July, from almost 1,200 to 2466; in August, from 830 to almost 2,300; and in September, from 800 to almost 1,500.

According to Michael Stallo, local history specialist at the Oak Ridge Public Library, “The average number of visitors to the Oak Ridge Room increased noticeably in July, leading up to the release of the 'Oppenheimer' movie, and by 65% for the month of August. People were very interested in Oppenheimer’s connections to Oak Ridge and in his life in general. He was the hot topic for at least three months.

“I easily had over 50 people come in to talk specifically about Oppenheimer. All of our copies of the ‘American Prometheus’ book on which the movie was based were checked out, and we had long waiting lists. The Oppenheimer talk ‘History vs. Hollywood’ filled the auditorium to the point where we had to turn a few people away to comply with fire safety codes.”

The "Oppenheimer" movie and the influence of Oppenheimer on Oak Ridge were covered locally by the “Hidden History: Stories from the Secret City” video casts hosted by Smith and Keith McDaniel and by three articles by Carolyn Krause published in Smith’s "Historically Speaking" column. One article discussed the movie and the effects on Oppenheimer’s reputation of two former Oak Ridgers, Col. Kenneth Nichols, an Oak Ridge hero, and Thom Mason, former director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and current director of Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The Smith-McDaniel video cast featured interviews with Alan Carr, who spoke about the LANL documentary “Oppenheimer: Science, Mission, Legacy” that he narrated, and Kai Bird, co-author of the book the movie was based on – “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.”

Oppenheimer’s positive effects on Oak Ridge included successfully pushing for the expansion of the Y-12 electromagnetic separation facilities and the rapid construction of the thermal diffusion plant to ensure that Oak Ridge produced sufficient uranium fuel for the first atomic bomb used in war. He also sent future Nobelist Richard Feynman to Y-12 to ensure that the barrels used to store a uranium compound were sufficiently spaced to prevent a possible explosive criticality accident.

Oppenheimer visited Oak Ridge at least twice, and at least once visited his brother Frank, who worked at the Y-12 plant.

The Manhattan Project National Historical Park also includes Hanford, Washington.

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: “Oppenheimer effect” boosts tourism in Oak Ridge; movie returns Dec. 8