Director Christopher Nolan’s new film “Oppenheimer” surpassed 400,000 in ticket presales on Monday, one day before its release in Korea on Tuesday.

“Oppenheimer” recorded an overwhelming pre-booking rate of 53.2 percent as of Monday morning as well as recording over 400,000 in ticket sales, according to the Korean Film Council’s integrated computer network for movie theater tickets. The film is also ranking first in reservation rates on all three major theater sites — CGV, Lotte Cinema and Megabox.

Amid this explosive popularity of the film even before its release, scalped tickets for “Oppenheimer” at IMAX theaters are being sold on second-hand sites and online communities, with tickets being resold at twice the original price for seats at CGV Yongsan.

“Oppenheimer” is a biographical drama about J. Robert Oppenheimer, a physicist who developed the first nuclear weapons during World War II. The film has already grossed 649 million dollars globally, just two weeks after its release in the United States and Britain.

Nolan has previously directed critically and commercially successful films such as “The Dark Knight” (2008) “Inception” (2010), “Interstellar” (2014) and “Dunkirk” (2017).

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]