The wait was worth it. After a middling summer the twin attack of ‘Barbenheimer’ has revived North American box office with an estimated $235.5m one-two punch.
Warner Bros’ record-breaking Barbie earned a spectacular $155m to become the top launch of the year to date while Universal’s Oppenheimer grossed $80.5m, a mighty debut for a three-hour drama.
This was the first weekend when one film opened on more than $100m and another opened on more than $80m. It is only the industry’s fourth $300m+ weekend, scoring the largest Friday-Sunday session since Spider-Man: No Way Home led the December 17-19 2021 session to $281.8m, and the largest since pre-pandemic times when Avengers: Endgame opened on $357m and pushed the weekend of April 26-28 2019 to $402m.
Barbie earned $337m worldwide and Oppenheimer brought in $174.2m. Full international updates will appear on Screen tomorrow.
Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, had been forecast to open well and as the day approached the projections kept going up from $70m to eventually over $100m.
Arriving at number one after a muscular $22.3m delivered the best preview grosses of the year to date, it earned $70.8m on Friday, $48.1m on Saturday, and $36.1m on Sunday in 4,243 locations for a whopping $36,531 weekend average.
This is the best launch of 2023 so far, overtaking the $146.4m of The Super Mario Bros. Movie back in April; the highest opening for a film directed by a woman (overtaking Captain Marvel’s $153.4m in 2019); the biggest debut from a non-sequel, non-remake in July (ahead of 2016’s The Secret Life Of Pets on $104.4m); and – in a fact that Mattel executives will enjoy – the biggest debut by a film based on a toy (overtaking 2011’s Transformers: Dark Of The Moon on $115.9m).
Furthermore – and in a mark that should give Hollywood executives food for thought – Barbie delivered Warner Bros’ biggest non-sequel, non-DC opening since It arrived in 2017 on $123.4m; and scored Warner Bros’ biggest advance sales on $49.5m.
The talent will be celebrating, too. Barbie produced career-best debuts for Robbie (2016’s Suicide Squad, $133.7m), Gosling (2017’s Blade Runner 2049, $32.8m), and Gerwig (2019’s Little Women, $16.8m).
The tentpole ranked an A on CinemaScore, and a 90% Certified Fresh Critics rating and a 90% audience score. Exit polls showed that women and girls accounted for close to 70% percent of the audience..
Meanwhile Oppenheimer directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Cillian Murphy opened in 3,610 theatres to deliver the biggest opening weekend for an R-rated film in 2023 so far – beating John Wick: Chapter 4’s $73.8m) – and the sixth biggest opening weekend of the year to date.
This was British filmmaker Nolan’s third best debut behind The Dark Knight Rises ($160.9m) and The Dark Knight ($158.4m). Universal is also calling the third biggest debut for a biographical film behind American Sniper on $89.3m and The Passion Of The Christ on $83.8m.
Oppenheimer is the only film on Imax screens in North America and the format generated $21.1m in a record 26.2% of the gross from 411 screens with a per-screen average of $51,000. This was the biggest Imax debut for Nolan, Universal, the month of July, and the year to date.
Overall premium large format screens earned 17% of the film’s weekend box office.
The Friday to Sunday session for both films will provide hope for box office watchers after seasonal flops and disappointments – although Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse and Sound Of Freedom are among the success stories.
Speaking of Sound Of Freedom, the faith-based film starring Jim Caviezel ranked third as a superb $20.1m haul elevated the tally to $124.7m after three weekends.
Last weekend’s champion Paramount/Skydance’ Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part One dropped off 64.3% and fell three slots to fourth on $19.5m for $118.8m after two sessions. Disney/Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny rounded out the top five on $6.7m for $159m after four.
National Association Of Theatre Owners head Michael O’Leary said in a statement: “This was a phenomenal experience for people who love movies on the big screen. It was a truly historic weekend and continues the positive box office momentum of 2023. More importantly, it proves once again that America loves going to the movies to see great films.”
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