“Barbenheimer” exploded over the weekend, generating greater than $235.5 million in ticket sales and reinvigorating the domestic box office.
“Barbie” tallied around $155 million during its first three days in theaters, the very best opening of 2023. Its counterpart “Oppenheimer” made $82.4 million over the weekend, based on numbers released Monday.
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“I do not think anyone could have reasonably predicted this type of confluence between ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘Barbie,'” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com. “If you happen to’re going to a theater immediately, the communal experience is harking back to major Marvel and Star Wars movies, but without those franchises remotely involved.”
Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer and Margot Robbie as Barbie
Julien De Rosa | AFP | Getty Images; Stuart C. Wilson | Getty Images
Greater than 18.5 million tickets were bought for the mixture of Warner Bros.‘ “Barbie” and Universal’s “Oppenheimer,” 12.8 million for “Barbie” and 5.8 million for “Oppenheimer,” based on data from EntTelligence.
“It was a really historic weekend and continues the positive box office momentum of 2023,” said Michael O’Leary, president and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners. “More importantly, it proves once more that America loves going to the flicks to see great movies.”
Each movies hold a rating of greater than 90% “Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes and inspired moviegoers to decorate head-to-toe in pink or don suits and hats during their screenings.
“People recognized that something special was happening they usually desired to be a component of it,” O’Leary said. “Our partners within the creative community and on the studios gave audiences two uniquely different, smart and original stories that were meant for the massive screen and movie lovers responded by gathering family and friends and heading to their local movie houses across the nation.”
With additional ticket sales from Paramount’s newest “Mission Inconceivable” film, Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and Angel Studios’ “The Sound of Freedom,” the weekend box office is anticipated to succeed in $302 million, the very best of any weekend in 2023, based on data from Comscore.
“The unprecedented performance of those two movies, and the boost it gave to the general movie marketplace, solidified the movie show as a cultural hub and epicenter of social interaction,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
“Barbenheimer” weekend is currently set to be the fourth-highest weekend haul of all-time, just under the three-day stretch when Disney’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” arrived in theaters in December 2015 and helped boost the general weekend haul to $313 million. The second-highest is $314 million from April 2018’s opening weekend of “Avengers: Infinity War.”
Some box office analysts project that Monday’s official weekend numbers may very well be quite a bit higher than Sunday’s estimates, and push “Barbenheimer” weekend up the charts. Nevertheless, they will not come near the highest-grossing weekend ever, which occurred in April 2019 when “Avengers: Endgame” hit theaters, drumming up $357 million by itself, and resulting in a $402 million overall weekend tally.
The success of “Barbenheimer” comes at a time when the domestic box office has faced some hurdles. A slew of adult-aimed blockbusters have underperformed, leading many within the industry to query if consumer tastes have shifted away from Hollywood.
Warner Bros.’ “The Flash” has fizzled, Pixar’s “Elemental” didn’t lure in family audiences and even the return of Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones wasn’t enough to pack cinemas.
Nevertheless, the mixture of bombs and blonde bombshells seems to have inspired loads of moviegoers to depart their couches for the cinema.
“It is a historic result that showcases the keenness audiences have for a wide range of fresh content,” Robbins said. “These movies have exquisitely tapped into the cultural zeitgeist. They’ve reignited the summer box office flame, they usually’ve proven that studios may be just a little more aggressive with counter-programming strategies in the longer term.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the distributor of “Oppenheimer” and owns Rotten Tomatoes.
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