My goodness how the turntables are. After a lackluster summer in which big tentpole releases like The Flash and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny failed to generate major ticket sales, the July 20-23 period exploded with two huge hits that couldn’t be further apart in style and audience – Greta Gerwig’s hilarious comedy Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s incredible dark drama Oppenheimer.
My goodness how the turntables are. After a lackluster summer in which big tentpole releases like The Flash and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny failed to generate major ticket sales, the July 20-23 period exploded with two huge hits that couldn’t be further apart in style and audience – Greta Gerwig’s hilarious comedy Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s incredible dark drama Oppenheimer.
Which of these stories is more impressive? Make your choice.
Barbie surpassed all expectations en route to a stunning $155 million three-day opening, the biggest of 2023, even surpassing The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Wow. Worldwide, per meetingThe Margot Robbie/Ryan Gosling comedy grossed $337 million after grossing $182 million in 69 international markets. According to industry figures, 71% of Barbie’s audience were women.
At the other end of the spectrum was Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” a three-hour R-rated drama that opened for $80.5 million, up from $33 million on Friday and $25.8 million on Saturday. Those are superhero numbers, folks, and third-best performance for Nolan behind The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, and well ahead of Inception ($62 million) and his latest movie Tenet ($20 million). Oppenheimer raised $174.3 million worldwide and earned $93.7 million from 78 international markets. And wouldn’t you know Men made up 65% of Oppenheimer’s audience.
So what is there? A few weeks ago, the conversation revolved around the ailing state of the global box office. Almost every release apart from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse stalled, leading to massive bombshells like The Flash and Indiana Jones. Even last week’s critically acclaimed “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” caused pundits to rack their brains after a lackluster $54 million opening weekend.
The Barbie/Oppenheimer craze was always expected to be well received, but it wasn’t The So. Obviously, audiences these days are more selective about what they spend their hard-earned cash on, holding off until the weekend to flock to the movies. Both films received critical acclaim and received excellent A CinemaScores from audiences, which bodes well for their long-term development.
That still doesn’t explain why Dead Reckoning hasn’t lived up to the hype. Tom Cruise’s latest film received rave reviews from everyone but collapsed under the power of Barbenheimer, plummeting 62% in its second weekend for a three-day gross of $21 million. So far, Chapter 7 has grossed US$120 million domestically and US$370 million worldwide. (By contrast, Indiana Jones has only made $335 million worldwide after three weeks.) This game is probably still putting in decent numbers at the end of its run, but those (like me) who expected top-gun success were grossly mistaken.
The immense competition doesn’t help. Dead Reckoning only had a week to hit big screens before Oppenheimer broke through. In retrospect, Cruise should have launched his film in April or later this year in October, rather than tackling two high-profile images head-on. Or the lesson here is that after more than a decade of endless superhero sequels, audiences yearn for original characters like Barbie and Oppenheimer. Almost every film that hit the box office this summer was another chapter in a long-running franchise, a remake, or a copy of something audiences had already seen. Admissions aren’t dead, audiences are just more selective about what they see.
Also, it helps to have a weekend that offers solid counter programs that target both demographics. Additionally, both Barbie and Oppenheimer embraced each other and relied on dynamic contrast, turning two very different films into one massive event.
Speaking of hits, Angel Studios’ “Sound of Freedom” continues to defy the odds, grossing $20 million (-27%) in its third weekend, for a staggering total of $124.6 million. Keep in mind that the Jim Caviezel drama only cost $14 million to produce, which means someone’s really lucky.
Also, Disney/Pixar’s Elemental has turned around after its disappointing start. The (very good) animated comedy has grossed a respectable US$137 million domestically, US$219 million internationally and US$356 million worldwide. No, it won’t draw attention, but it’s no longer a colossal flop on par with Lightyear ($218 million).
Released this week is the remake of Disney’s The Haunted Mansion, which should do well but probably won’t be powerful enough to bring down Barbie or Oppenheimer. But who knows at this point?
Domestic box office results:
- Barbie (WB) 4,243 theatres, Fri $70.5m, 3 days $150m/week 1
- Oppenheimer (Uni) 3,610 theaters Fr $33m, 3 days $77m/week 1st
- Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Par) 4,321 (-6) Theaters Fri $5.56M (-67%) 3 Days $21M (-62%) Total $120.2M/Week 2
- Sound of Freedom (Angel) 3,285 (+20) Theaters Fri $5.4M (-28%) 3 Days $20M (-27%) Total $124.6M/Week 3
- Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Dis) 2,885 (-980) Theaters Fri $1.9M (-42%) 3 Days $7M (-43%) / Total $159.3M / Week 4
- Insidous: The Red Door (Sony/Blum) 2,554 (-634) Theaters Fri $2M (-51%) 3 Days $6.5M (-50%)/Total $71M/Week 3
- Elemental (Dis) 2,720 (-515) Theaters Fri $1.8M (-30%) 3 Days $6.2M (-31%) Total $137.6M/Week 6th
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Sony) 1,669 (-908) theaters Fri $855,000 (-50%) 3 days $2.9M (-52%) Total $375.2M/week 8
- Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (PAR) 834 (-1,207) theaters Fri $311,000 (-68%) 3 days $1.1M (-67%) Total $155.6M/week 7th
- No Hard Feelings (Sony) 1,017 (-1036) theaters, Fri $345,000 (-65%) 3 days $1.08M (-67%), total $49.2M/week 5