'Barbenheimer' Banks A Banger Box Office On Opening Weekend
Monday has been thrown in for good measure
Well what can we say? It was a fan-plastic weekend for cinema. Oh you were looking for explosive? Digress. The Barbenheimer phenomenon of two films with very polar opposite vibes hyping each other up was a massive success.
The Greta Gerwig-directed Barbie film based on the Mattel toy and the Christopher Nolan-directed Oppenheimer, three-hour epic about the creator and creation of nuclear weapons were initially reported to have made $155 million and $80.5 million on their opening weekend at the box office, it turns out they made $162 million and $82.4 million respectively, a $244 million total combined. For Barbie, it has achieved the biggest opening weekend of the year, surpassing The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s $146 million. It is also the biggest debut ever for a film directed by a woman, over Captain Marvel, which was directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck and earned $153 million.
Barbie came into the weekend on estimates ranging from $80-$110 million, while Oppenheimer was estimated for $50 million. Internationally, the former beat expectations there too, earning $194.3 million, bringing a worldwide total of $356.3 million. What impressed analysts was that Barbie didn’t have much of a claim on IMAX or premium large format screens, which cost more than the average 2D movie ticket. And that’s because Oppenheimer did, practically monopolizing them on Nolan’s preferences. Internationally, the biopic eared $98 million for a worldwide total of $180 million, one of the best starts ever for R-Rated or biographical films. 47% of Oppenheimer’s domestic tally comes from premium large format screens, and IMAX made up $35 million in worldwide sales.
The impact of the duo on the general box office was incredible with biggest collective weekend since before COVID. It is historically the fourth-biggest weekend in history with over $300 million. The three weekends ahead of it were headlined by Marvel and Star Wars. Avengers: Endgame led a $402 million collective weekend in April 2019, Avengers: Infinity War did the same weekend the previous year, garnering a $314 million collective weekend and Star Wars: The Force Awakens led a $313 million weekend in December 2015.
On Monday, Barbie grossed another $26 million, marking another Christopher Nolan-related milestone, as it overtook The Dark Knight’s $24.6 million to become Warner Bros.’s highest-grossing Monday ever, and broke into the top 15 Mondays of all time without the help of a holiday. It certainly has hit $200 million by Wednesday. It is believed that Barbie was dated to face Oppenheimer to spite Nolan after being upset over Project Popcorn, the mid-COVID strategy for all of 2021’s releases were day-and-date on HBO Max for 30 days of their theatrical release. He thus moved to Universal for Oppenheimer. As for its own Monday, the film racked up another $12.6 million which brings its domestic total to $95 million, and is said to have hit $100 million yesterday.
