Worldwide box office Jul 21-23
| Rank | Film (distributor) | 3-day (world) | 3-day (world) | 3-day (int’l) | Cume (int’l) | Territories |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Barbie (Warner Bros) | $337m | $337m | $182m | $182m | 70 |
| 2. | Oppenheimer (Universal) | $174m | $174m | $93m | $93m | 79 |
| 3. | Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (Paramount) | $74.5m | $370.8m | $55m | $252.1m | 72 |
| 4. | Creation Of The Gods (various) | $42.5m | $53.5m | $42.5m | $53.5m | 1 |
| 5. | Chang An San Wan Li (various) | $40.3m | $165.3m | $40.3m | $165.3m | 1 |
| 6. | Advancing Of ZQ (various) | $31m | $31m | $31m | $31m | 1 |
| 7. | Elemental (Disney) | $24.1m | $356.6m | $18.3m | $219.4m | 52 |
| 8. | Never Say Never (various) | $20.5m | $255.7m | $20.5m | $255.7m | 1 |
| 9. | Sound Of Freedom (Angel) | $20.1m | $155.8m | - | - | 1 |
| 10. | Insidious: The Red Door (Sony) | $18.5m | $155.8m | $12m | $84.8m | 60 |
Credit: Comscore. All figures are estimates.
’Barbie’ delivers stonking opening number
UPDATED: Warner Bros’ Barbie leads a revitalised global box office with a confirmed $356.3m debut session, ahead of Oppenheimer’s confirmed opening of $180.4m.
This is the second-biggest global opening of 2023, behind The Super Mario Bros Movie with $375.6m – although that number included two days of previews across many markets including North America. Data gatherer Comscore recorded the opening weekend period for The Super Mario Bros Movie as totalling $319.2m, which is behind Barbie.
Barbie has recorded the biggest ever opening for a non-franchise Warner Bros film – although of course Greta Gerwig’s film does benefit from hefty existing IP in the shape of the globally popular Mattel doll.
Among international markets, UK/Ireland led with $24.2m, ahead of Mexico ($22.9m), Brazil ($17.6m), Australia ($14.6m) and Spain ($7.8m).
In UK/Ireland, the number represents the biggest opening of 2023, and the biggest for a Warner Bros film since the pandemic.
Mexico and Brazil were part of an overall success story in the Latin America region, where the Barbie opening was the biggest of all time for a Warner Bros film (beating top franchise fare such as Batman V Superman and the final Harry Potter film), and the fourth-biggest opening of all time from any studio (behind only Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War and Spider-Man: No Way Home). Barbie ranked number one at the weekend in all Latin America region markets.
In continental Europe, it’s relatively unusual for a film to open bigger in Spain than in France (right behind with an estimated $9.8m), and Barbie did so despite the potential distraction of parliamentary elections yesterday (July 23). But France can still be seen as a success – Barbie delivered the biggest opening there for Warner Bros since the pandemic, and the biggest since Joker.
China, with an $8.2m opening, was the seventh-biggest international market. Barbie ranked only fifth at the China box office at the weekend, behind four local titles.
In total, Barbie delivered the biggest opening of all time for a Warner Bros film in 16 markets, including Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.
‘Oppenheimer’ is strong runner-up with $174m
UPDATED: Compared to many Christopher Nolan films containing action spectacle or benefiting from sci-fi or comic-book genre positioning, Oppenheimer might be viewed as a talky drama with potentially challenging subject matter – the creation of the world’s first nuclear bomb.
So the opening box office – at the top end for the director – is a remarkable outcome.
Oppenheimer has debuted with a confirmed $180.4m worldwide: $82.4m in North America and $97.9m for 78 international markets.
Excluding previews and in like-for-like markets, the international number is only 7% behind top Nolan film The Dark Knight Rises, and ahead of all other titles from the director.
Oppenheimer has delivered the highest global gross for a film not ranked at number one since Comscore first started publishing its global box office chart in June 2021. Previously, the record for a second-ranked title was held by No Time To Die, which initially opened in international markets only (in October 2021), grossing $121.3m – landing behind the chart champ that weekend, Chinese title The Battle At Lake Changjin.
UK/Ireland leads the international pack for Oppenheimer with $14m – the biggest ever opening for a Nolan film not featuring Batman, beating the likes of Dunkirk, Inception, Interstellar and Tenet. Oppenheimer performed particularly well on IMAX, with the format accounting for 16 of the 20 best-performing sites, and the film delivering BFI IMAX’s biggest weekend result ever.
India ranks second for Oppenheimer with $7.1m – opening at the top spot, ahead of Barbie. In India, Oppenheimer delivered the biggest opening of 2023, the biggest ever for a Nolan film, and the biggest opening ever for a non-franchise Hollywood film. It’s the seventh-biggest opening of all time for a Hollywood film (behind six franchise titles).
In third place internationally for Oppenheimer, France opened with $7m, ahead of Germany ($6.6m) and Australia ($6.4m). Next are Mexico ($4.6m), Saudi Arabia ($4m) and Spain ($3.8m).
Oppenheimer shrugged off the challenge of an epic run time (180 minutes), reducing the number of showtimes per day. Head-to-head competition with the mighty Barbie was turned into a positive with the ‘Barbenheimer’ hashtag.
Barbie and Oppenheimer helped drive the global box office to its best weekend market total in 2023. With Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One also contributing an estimated $74.5m, four Chinese films all delivering at least $20m, plus the likes of North America success story Sound Of Freedom, the worldwide top 10 titles collectively grossed an estimated $783m.
For comparison, although Avatar: The Way Of Water began last December with a powerful $441.6m (beating the opening number for Barbie, and dwarfing Oppenheimer), the top 10 titles that weekend totalled only $475m.
‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ hits $371m
Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One faced a tough challenge in its second session, with Barbie and Oppenheimer hogging the biggest-capacity rooms at plexes, and the latter title in particular nabbing large-format screens including IMAX.
The seventh Mission: Impossible added an estimated $19.5m in North America (dropping 64%) plus $55.0m in international markets (which compares with a previews-inclusive $155.6m for the opening session). The film opened in new market Japan, delivering an estimated $7.9m – 23% above the opening of sixth film Mission: Impossible – Fallout.
Global total for Dead Reckoning Part One is now $370.1m, and so is now 47% of the way to matching the lifetime total of franchise topper Fallout, with $792m.
The new film has so far grossed only $40.6m in China. While that is the top number for the film in any international market, Dead Reckoning Part One is not going to match the $181.2m grossed by Fallout in China, and will also miss out on Russia, where Fallout grossed $8.7m.
Chinese films add to global buoyancy
Two new Chinese releases – fantasy Creation Of The Gods: Part 1 and Advancing Of ZQ – landed in fourth and sixth place in the global chart, with respective weekend takings of $42.5m (and a cume of $53.5m) and $31.1m (cume of $31.2m).
Sandwiched between them in the worldwide weekend chart is animation Chang An San Wan Li, while lower down is a fourth Chinese film, boxing drama Never Say Never.
Creation Of The Gods: Part 1 is based on famous 16th-century fantasy novel Fengshenyanyi, telling the story of mythical wars between humans, immortals, demons and spirits more than 3,000 years ago. Wuershan (Mojin: The Lost Legend) directs this first part of an epic trilogy.
Fantasy action comedy Advancing Of ZQ (aka Wonder Family) is directed by Yang Song (Never Say Die), with a cast including Shen Teng and Ma Li (both Goodbye Mr Loser).
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