An worker adds letters for upcoming film releases “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” to a marquee on the Colonial Theater in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, July 16, 2023.
Hannah Beier | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Hollywood’s biggest weekend on the box office in years wasn’t fueled by superheroes, Jedi or the promise of a sequel.
Sure, there have been big names: Barbie, the enduring fashion doll; Oppenheimer, the daddy of the atomic bomb; and, after all, directors Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan.
But what set “Barbenheimer” weekend apart was fresh storytelling, a fear of missing out on a cultural moment and a desire to experience movies on the largest screen possible.
“They did an amazing job of positioning it as a movie that not only needed to be seen in theaters, but needed to be seen together with your friends in a theater,” said Mike Polydoros, CEO at cinema marketing firm PaperAirplane Media.
‘At a crossroads’
The historic box office combination of Warner Bros. Discovery’s “Barbie” and Universal’s “Oppenheimer” arrived at a time when even probably the most dependable franchise movies have did not lure in audiences.
Marvel and DC movies aren’t pulling in the identical ticket sales as they did before the Covid-19 pandemic, nor are recent installments in film series comparable to Mission Not possible, Fast and Furious, Indiana Jones and Transformers.
Movie nostalgia is not any longer enough to encourage consumers to go away their couches for cinemas.
“The industry is at a crossroads,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com. “The success of ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘Barbie’ shows why studios need to start out considering more outside the box while allowing creative talent the room to do what they do best. Gone are the times when a brand can simply be slapped onto a product and other people be expected to point out up in droves simply because they’ve before or because an algorithm suggests they may.”
Together, “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” generated $244.5 million during their first three days in theaters — $162 million for “Barbie” and $82.5 million for “Oppenheimer.”
Adding ticket sales from Paramount’s newest “Mission: Not possible” film, Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and Angel Studios’ “The Sound of Freedom,” the weekend box office topped $311 million, the fourth-highest weekend haul in history.
The FOMO effect
“Barbenheimer’s” historic weekend was also fueled by a way of urgency, which the box office has been lacking in recent months.
“A fear of missing out on such a special moment motivated people to see one or each, perhaps before they ordinarily would have,” Robbins said.
Audiences were drawn to see “Oppenheimer” on the largest screen possible, or in specialty theaters that showed the exclusive 70mm footage of Nolan’s biopic. Nolan’s movies have come to be event cinema, because the director shies away from computer-generated images in favor of practical effects and is thought for creating powerful visuals.
As for “Barbie,” an enormous draw for audiences was the communal experience of donning bubblegum pink and going out in large groups, and, after all, Gerwig, who is thought for her sharp, witty dialogue and concentrate on female-driven stories.
Meme-worthy
One other piece of the appeal was the incontrovertible fact that the 2 movies were so drastically different.
“They compounded each other’s success via the Barbenheimer meme, because it organically took over the popular culture consciousness and crossed over into mainstream channels that do not normally include movies of their casual each day discourse,” Robbins said.
He noted that each movies would have been box-office hits regardless, but “the mystique of them opening on the identical day elevated their profiles to a completely recent level.”
The meme-worthy trend of seeing each in the identical day drove a whole lot of 1000’s of individuals to cinemas over the weekend. Typically, two movies arriving on the identical weekend from rival studios would result in cannibalization of ticket sales.
“The incontrovertible fact that it was serendipitous was a salient element,” said Robert Thompson, a professor at Syracuse University and a popular culture expert. “That this was not a part of a top-down marketing scheme gave it extra voltage.”
The momentum of “Barbenheimer” is not over.
IMAX screens which have the 70mm showings of “Oppenheimer” are sold out for weeks to return and “Barbie” continues to attract in moviegoers even on weekdays.
On Monday, “Barbie” added $26 million to its haul, the largest Monday within the history of Warner Bros. and the most effective ever for a female director. It added one other $26 million Tuesday, extending its domestic box office to $214 million through its first five days in theaters.
“Lest anyone think this was a mere flash within the pan, the upcoming weekend should see tremendous sophomore sessions for each movies,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, noting that curiosity and repeat viewings will proceed to drive ticket sales.
“Barbenheimer” will face some competition from Disney’s “Haunted Mansion” this coming weekend, but box-office analysts expect word of mouth to fuel ticket sales for each “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” within the weeks to return.
“These movies aren’t going to face significant competition for the remainder of summer either, which implies their stellar opening weekends ought to be followed by robust endurance going into the ultimate weeks of summer and early fall,” Robbins said. “It’s truly a duo that can go down within the annals of movie history.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal distributed “Oppenheimer.”
