A week after setting box office records, Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ and Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ continue to perform strongly in theaters. ‘Barbie’ earned a staggering $93 million in its second weekend, and ‘Oppenheimer’ held steady in the number two spot with a solid $46.2 million. Despite the usual drop in ticket sales in the second week, the two films experienced smaller decreases of 43% and 44% respectively.
The combined worldwide ticket sales of ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ have already exceeded $1 billion, marking a significant moment for the film industry. According to Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore, it is unprecedented for two films from rival studios to boost each other’s fortunes in this way.
Following its record-breaking $162 million opening weekend, ‘Barbie’ has continued to perform exceptionally well. With a domestic gross of $351.4 million so far, it is set to become the biggest box-office hit of the summer. The film also proved popular in international markets, raking in $122.2 million over the weekend and bringing its global gross to $775 million.
In contrast, ‘Oppenheimer’, a drama about atomic bomb physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, is performing more like a traditional blockbuster than a three-hour-long film about scientists. It has so far grossed $174.1 million domestically and over $400 million globally.
The success of these two films demonstrates the potential of the movie industry when all elements align. As Jeff Goldstein, distribution chief for Warner Bros., pointed out, in the post-pandemic era, films that work really do work big time.
Despite the ‘Barbenheimer’ bonanza, other new releases such as Walt Disney Co.’s ‘Haunted Mansion’ struggled to make an impact at the box office. The film, which cost about $150 million to make, debuted with a relatively modest $24 million domestically and $9 million in overseas sales.
Other films, including Tom Cruise’s ‘Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One’, also failed to match the success of ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’. However, the sleeper hit ‘Sound of Freedom’ has been the best-performing non-‘Barbenheimer’ release in theaters, grossing $12.4 million in its fourth weekend and nearly $150 million in total.