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💥 Barbenheimer Blew Up the Box Office

💥 Barbenheimer Blew Up the Box Office

+ Sound of Freedom still CRUSHING it!

July 28, 2023

GM. What a week it has been with the simultaneous release of Barbie and Oppenheimer this past weekend. As we reported last week, the internet has had a ton of fun with this all summer; the Barbenheimer memes just keep coming, proving that competition isn’t always a zero sum game. Indeed, both films were effectively able to market for each other and both films did record numbers at the box office. Barbie, with its PG-13 rating and generally more upbeat nature, was clearly going to have a wider appeal and naturally took the #1 spot of the weekend. On a budget of $128-$145 million, the movie opened to $162 million domestically and has since done $495 million worldwide. With marketing, the breakeven was likely around the $300 million point, so it’s safe to say that Warner Bros. (the distributor) was smiling and laughing all the way to the bank this week.

Oppenheimer on the other hand, with its R rating and darker, slower tone, naturally came in second, but still did massive numbers. On a smaller budget of $100 million, it opened to $82 million and has since accumulated $229 million worldwide. Both films have done and are doing great, but while Barbie seems to have been a cultural and marketing phenomenon, Oppenheimer seems to be the real deal film here. There is already a ton of Oscar buzz for the film in all categories, including Best Actor for Cillian Murphy.

Collectively, Barbie and Oppenheimer produced the 4th biggest box office weekend in history. We’ll be interested to see how the two movies do in this second weekend as it seems that Oppenheimer is clearly the front runner in critical and audience acclaim. Will they both see an equal drop in ticket sales from their opening weekend? Will Oppenheimer hold stronger and take the #1 spot for the weekend? We’ll report what happens next weekend. In the meantime, be sure you’re following us on Twitter and Instagram so you don’t miss a thing.

WAIT! That’s not all that’s going on at the box office. Additionally, Sound of Freedom is still absolutely crushing in ticket sales from its July 4th release. The incredible true story of former government agent turned vigilante to rescue hundreds of children from sex trafficking jumped Insidious: The Red Door in weekend totals two weekends ago from the previous weekend. And in a completely unprecedented move this most recent weekend, Sound of Freedom brought in more ticket sales domestically in its third weekend than Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One did in its second weekend. Mission: Impossible was naturally never going to outrank Barbie and Oppenheimer in their opening weekends. Putting those aside, no one in their right mind would have ever predicted that Mission: Impossible would rank 4th domestically in its second weekend. It proves how good Sound of Freedom must really be if its having this strong and long of a run at the box office. As for Mission: Impossible, it’s still done pretty decent with $378 million worldwide. Many are saying it’s phenomenal and we can’t wait to see Part Two. The moral of the story? Go see all the movies currently in theaters!

A quick note; Haunted Mansion from Disney and the horror/thriller Talk to Me from A24 are both seeing wide releases this weekend. We’ll report on their openings next week!