In the end, “Barbenheimer” lived up to the hype.
The release of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” on the same day drew moviegoers to cinemas in droves, and the double feature powered one of Hollywood’s biggest weekends ever.
“Barbie” is a bright, quick-on-its-feet comedy, while “Oppenheimer” is an adult-oriented three-hour biopic. Still, the wildly different films have been paired by many fans into a must-see double feature.
So, while the movies share nothing other than a release date, their box office performances have been intertwined. Because of the “Barbenheimer” effect, many moviegoers who had only planned to see one of the two films ended up watching both.
“The buildup … kept raising the intensity with which people were excited about seeing these films,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
When forecasting for the two movies first started, experts predicted that “Barbie” would have an opening weekend in the $50 million to $60 million range, while “Oppenheimer” looked poised to sell between $30 million and $40 million worth of tickets.
Those forecasts kept creeping up, and this weekend audiences blew those numbers out of the water. “Barbenheimer” brought in $246.2 million at the box office, according to Comscore. “Barbie’s” $162 million share of that figure set the record for biggest opening weekend ever for a female director.
“Some theaters had to add showings for both ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘Barbie,'” Dergarabedian says. “They had to expand the marketplace to accommodate this incredible demand. That’s very rare.”
Here’s how the “Barbenheimer” $246.2 million opening weekend stacks up among the biggest movie openings of all time, according to Comscore data.
The 5 biggest opening weekends of all time
1. “Avengers: Endgame”
Release date: April 2019
Domestic opening weekend gross: $357.1 million
2. “Spider-Man: No Way Home”
Release date: December 2021
Domestic opening weekend gross: $260.1 million
3. “Avengers: Infinity War”
Release date: April 2018
Domestic opening weekend gross: $257.7 million
4. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
Release date: December 2015
Domestic opening weekend gross: $247.9 million
5. “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer”
A movie theater box office is pictured announcing the opening of the “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” movies in Los Angeles, July 20, 2023.
Valerie Macon | AFP | Getty Images
Release date: July 2023
Domestic opening weekend gross: $246.2 million
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the distributor of “Oppenheimer.”
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