Global Courant
“Barbenheimer” not only worked – it brought gold at the box office. This weekend’s social media-fuelled amalgamation of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” brought moviegoers back to theaters in record numbers, vastly outperforming projections and giving a glimmer of hope to the lagging exhibition business amid the sobering backdrop of strikes.
Warner Bros.” “Barbie” claimed the top spot with a whopping $155 million in ticket sales from North American theaters at 4,243 locations, surpassing “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (as well as every Marvel movie this year) as the year’s biggest opening and breaking the first weekend record for a film directed by a woman. Universal’s “Oppenheimer” also exceeded expectations, grossing $80.5 million from 3,610 theaters in the US and Canada, marking Nolan’s biggest non-Batman debut and one of the best starts ever for an R-rated biographical drama.
It is also the first time a movie opened to more than $100 million in the same weekend and another film opened to more than $80 million. If everything is taken care of, it will probably be the fourth biggest box office weekend of all time with more than $300 million in the entire industry. And all this in a market that is increasingly turning towards intellectual property-driven winner takes all.
The “Barbenheimer” phenomenon may have started as a benign competition between two aesthetic opposites, but as many hoped, both films ultimately benefited. Internationally, “Barbie” made $182 million from 69 territories, making a worldwide weekend of $337 million. “Oppenheimer” earned $93.7 million from 78 territories, higher than “Barbie” in India for a worldwide total of $174.2 million.
The only real victim was “Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part I”, which fell 64% in weekend two despite strong reviews and a healthy opening weekend. Overshadowed by the glow of “Barbenheimer” and the blow of losing its IMAX screens to “Oppenheimer,” the Tom Cruise vehicle added $19.5 million, bringing its domestic total to $118.8 million.
“Barbenheimer” isn’t just counter-programming either. But while a certain proportion of avid moviegoers overlapped, the audience was generally different.
Women rode the historic “Barbie” opening, accounting for 65% of the audience, according to PostTrak, and 40% of ticket buyers were under the age of 25 for the PG-13-rated film.
“It’s just a joyful time in the world. This is history in so many ways,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. domestic distribution chairman. “I think this marketing campaign is one for the ages that people will talk about forever.”
The audience of “Oppenheimer”, meanwhile, was 62% male and 63% over the age of 25, with a somewhat surprising 32% between the ages of 18 and 24.
Both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” scored well with critics with 90% and 94% respectively on Rotten Tomatoes, and audiences gave both films an A CinemaScore. And social media has been flooded all weekend with comments and “takes” — good, bad, problematic, and everything in between — the kind of organic, event cinema, watercooler debate that no marketing budget can buy.
“The ‘Barbenheimer’ thing was a real boost for both movies,” Goldstein said. “It’s a reward for all of us.”
“Oppenheimer” owned the vast majority (80%) of premium large format screens. Some 25 theaters in North America had IMAX showings of 70mm (Nolan’s preferred format), most of which were completely sold out throughout the weekend – accounting for 2% of the total gross. Theaters even scrambled to add more to meet demand, including showings at 1 a.m. and 6 a.m., which also sold out.
“Nolan’s films are truly cinematic events,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution.
IMAX screenings alone made up 26% of the domestic gross (or US$21.1 million) from just 411 screens and 20% of the worldwide gross, and “Oppenheimer” will run for at least three weeks on those in-demand screens.
“This is an unparalleled phenomenon,” Rich Gelfond, the CEO of IMAX, said in a statement. “All over the world we’ve seen sold-out shows at 4am shows and people traveling across the border for hours to see ‘Oppenheimer’ in IMAX 70mm.”
This is the comeback weekend Hollywood has been dreaming of since the pandemic. There have been big openings and successes – including “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, “Top Gun: Maverick”, “Avatar: The Way of Water”, but the fact that two films are successful at the same time is remarkable.
“It was truly a historic weekend and continues the positive box office momentum of 2023,” said Michael O’Leary, president and CEO of the National Association of Theater Owners. “People recognized that something special was going on and they wanted to be a part of it.”
And yet disaster looms in the background as Hollywood studios continue to squabble with striking actors and writers over a fair contract.
“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” were the last films on the 2023 calendar to receive a massive global press tour. Both continued until the 11th hour, penetrating every last moment with their movie stars. “Oppenheimer” even pushed up the London premiere by an hour, knowing that Emily Blunt, Matt Damon and Cillian Murphy would have to leave to symbolically get into the pickets by the time the movie started.
With no movie stars to promote their movies, studios have started pushing some fall releases, including the high-profile Zendaya tennis drama “Challengers.”
But for now, it’s just a positive story that could go on for weeks.
“There could be a follow-up next weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “The FOMO factor will increase because of this monumental box office event that focuses on the cinema experience.”
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday in U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released on Monday.
Barbie, $155 million. “Oppenheimer,” $80.5 million. “Sound of Freedom”, $20.1 million. “Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning Part I”, $19.5 million. “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”, $6.7 million. “Insidious: The Red Door”, $6.5 million. “Elementary”, US$5.8 million. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”, US$2.8 million. “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts”, $1.1 million. “No Hard Feelings”, US$1.1 million.