Barbenheimer had an impressive weekend at the box office. Greta Gerwig's pink meta-comedy Barbie and Christopher Nolan's epic biographical drama Oppenheimerdominated the box office during both of their opening weekends, obliterating early projected numbers.
The "father of the atomic bomb" beat expectations with $82.5 million domestically, beating the huge projection of $81.5 million. At the international box office, Oppenheimer added $93.7 million, making its global box office for its opening weekend $174 million. Nolan's highest-grossing film for an opening weekend is a testament to Nolan's position in cinema. The three-hour-long piece with little action, one explosion, and lots of dialogue is well-paced, simplistic in its scientific jargon, and stunning to watch. There are a lot of factors that go into the success of an R-rated biopic film, and it is truly the visionaries behind and in front of the camera.
“Around the world, we’ve seen sellouts at 4 a.m. shows and people traveling hours across borders to see Oppenheimer in IMAX 70mm,” Variety reports IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond saying. It's true, too. After watching the film in 70mm, I attempted to find IMAX 70mm tickets for a week-out, and theaters 50 miles away from me are currently sold out. The number for Oppenheimer will continue to rise to new heights, making this film Nolan's most lucrative original story to date.
But the victory of the weekend belongs to Barbie. The fantastically pink world brought in $162 million at the domestic box office in its first weekend, above the already record-breaking estimate of $155 million. The film, which stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as stereotypical Barbie and Ken, ranked as the biggest opening weekend of the year, beating out the previous success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which brought in $146 million.
Barbie also stands as the biggest debut for a film directed by a woman, overtaking Anna Boden's and Ryan Fleck's work on 2019's Captain Marvel, which brought in $153 million.
Barbie added $182 million at the international box office, which brings the film's global box office to a stunning $337 million. These ticket sales are impressive because Barbie didn't have the premium or IMAX screens that are more expensive than the average 2D movie ticket, which belonged to either Oppenheimer or Mission: Impossible -- Dead Reckoning Part One.
“This historic result reflects the intense heat, interest, and enthusiasm for Barbie,” Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution Jeff Goldstein wrote in a note to the press. “This doll will indeed have long long legs.”
'Oppenheimer'Credit: Universal Pictures
More Historical Figures Broken by Barbenheimer
On Sunday, film writer Jonathan Boehle broke down the headline figures and some of the records Barbie and Oppenheimer managed to set in a Twitter thread.
It's not surprising that both films did well at the box office. The marketing team behind Barbie was so strong and wildly inventive that they accidentally started promoting two films. The concept of Barbenheimer was born as soon as movie watchers saw that they had the same release date and raced to get tickets for a double feature.
What is surprising is that the two films set a record for the first time a movie opened over $100 million at the same time as another film opened at $80 million on the same weekend.
Boehle pointed out that when one movie opens at over $100 million in a weekend, the next best-performing film typically doesn't even come close.
Barbenheimer isn't the biggest Top Two of All Time (that title belongs to the 1984 films Gremlins ($12,511,634) and Ghostbusters ($13,612,564), according to The Numbers).
However, this double feature marks the fourth biggest movie opening weekend ever after Avengers: Endgame, Infinity War, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which are all major Hollywood franchise films with an existing audience. Barbie and Oppenheimer are different -- they are original stories based on American icons told by Oscar-nominated filmmakers.
What is also impressive is that Oppenheimer became the biggest R-rated movie released since Joker, ranking Nolan's film as the 12th highest-grossing opening weekend R-rated film in film history.
With SAG-AFTRA and the WGA still on strike, it is hard to know if any highly anticipated films slated for this year will be moved to next year. Most notably, we believe that Martin Scorsese's made-for-Apple film, Killing of the Flower Moon, will be pushed to a later date so the actors can promote the $200 million film.
Did you watch Barbenheimer this weekend? Let us know your thoughts and what other films you are excited to see this year.
Sources: Variety, Jonathan Boehle
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