It’s a “Barbenheimer” world, and we’re just living in it.
The collective force of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” continued to rule the box office in their second weekends of release, providing another needed jolt as two Hollywood strikes threaten the fragile exhibition industry.
Greta Gerwig’s cotton candy-colored fantasy comedy again led the way, adding a massive $93 million between Friday and Sunday. Ticket sales for “Barbie” declined just 43% from its debut and resulted in the seventh-biggest second weekend in history. The only movies that enjoyed bigger weekend two tallies were billion-dollar behemoths “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($149 million), “Avengers: Endgame” ($147 million) and “Infinity War” ($114 million), “Black Panther” ($111 million), “Jurassic World” ($106 million) and “The Avengers” ($103 million).
Christopher Nolan’s dark historical drama also had a stellar sophomore outing, taking in a mighty $46.6 million over the weekend. According to Universal, it’s the first R-rated film to gross more than $10 million for seven days in a row — and counting.
“Weekend two proves the outpouring of interest in ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ a week ago was not a fluke,” says Paul Dergarabedian, a senior Comscore analyst. “Both films put up second weekend numbers that would have been considered solid as debuts and reflect two of the best sophomore session holds in box office history.”
After two weeks on the big screen, “Barbie” has generated $352 million in North America to stand as the fourth-biggest movie of the year. Globally, the Warner Bros. film has grossed more than $750 million and ranks as the third-largest release of the year.
Meanwhile, “Oppenheimer” has earned $174 million at the domestic box office and $400 million at the global box office. It has already outperformed the lifetime grosses of two prior Nolan efforts, 2020’s “Tenet” ($365 million) and “Batman Begins” ($373 million).
Two new movies, Disney’s remake of “Haunted Mansion” and A24’s violent thriller “Talk to Me,” attempted to entice audiences in the wake of “Barbenheimer,” to varied results. (Of course, nobody knew the power the two blockbusters would punch when release dates were set.)
“Haunted Mansion” debuted in third place with $24.6 million from 3,700 North American theaters. That’s a decent result for a kid-centric tentpole, as well as a Halloween film that opened in July. Except Disney spent $150 million to produce the film and tens of millions on promotional efforts. So, the film has a high bar to reach profitability, at least in its theatrical run.
It doesn’t help that audiences were mixed on “Haunted Mansion,” which has a “B+” CinemaScore. Directed by Justin Simien and starring LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish and Owen Wilson, the film takes inspiration from the Disney theme park ride and follows a single mother and her son, who move into a mansion, only to find out that it’s haunted.
“Disney gets additional value from its productions for its other divisions — in this case, the film promotes its theme parks,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “But setting that aside, the movie has a long climb to break-even.”
The low-budget “Talk to Me” generated a healthy $10 million from 2,340 theaters across the U.S. Those ticket sales exceeded expectations and were enough to land in sixth place. It’s the second-biggest start in wide release for A24, following “Hereditary” with $13.6 million.
“Talk to Me” is the feature debut of Australian YouTube stars Danny and Michael Philippou. Reviews and word-of-mouth have been positive, which helped the film break out at the box office. It centers on a friend group who discovers how to conjure spirits, which is all fun and games until one of them unleashes a horrifying supernatural force.
“This is an excellent opening for an indie horror pic made on a micro-budget of $4.5 million,” says Gross. “The horror genre continues to be a very creative space for new and developing talent.”
Elsewhere at the domestic box office, the independent juggernaut “Sound of Freedom” added $13.6 million from 3,411 theaters in its fifth weekend of release. The thriller about child sex trafficking has generated $150 million to date, making it the 12th-highest grossing domestic release of the year. Remarkably, “Sound of Freedom” has earned more money in North America than big-budget tentpoles like “Fast X” ($145 million), Pixar’s “Elemental” ($142 million) and Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” ($138 million).
“Mission: Impossible” took the No. 5 spot on domestic charts with $10.2 million from 3,191 venues in its third outing. The $291 million-budgeted blockbuster has stumbled in the wake of “Barbenheimer.”
Overall, the month of July was ahead by 1.4% compared to pre-pandemic times, while the entire box office remains down roughly 20%.
“July would have been a lukewarm month, but then ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ arrived; moviegoing exploded,” says Gross. “Within one week, July caught up to its pre-pandemic average.”
