The movie business is alive!
Greta Gerwig’s gender war “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s nuclear war “Oppenheimer” surpassed prerelease weekend expectations at the box office to collect a combined $235.5 million in the United States and Canada, an impressive total that sent a clear message to Hollywood: If you want to rule the same culture, you have to give new franchises to old threads that are not limited to movies.
“Original storytelling done right came out in a really remarkable way,” said Richard L. Gelfond, the chief executive of IMAX, which accounted for 26 percent of “Oppenheimer’s” turnout in North America, selling out even 4 a.m. screenings. “These movies are not sequels that look like the last sequel to a long-running franchise. You might say people noticed.”
Hollywood has overcome the pandemic: All told, North American multiplexes have their biggest crowds since “Avengers: Endgame” arrived in April 2019. “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” powered the domestic box office to about $302 million in total weekend ticket sales, with films like “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” and “Stupid Reckoning Part One.”
“Barbie,” a feminist manifesto wrapped in hot pink bubble gum, sold an estimated $155 million in tickets at domestic theaters, according to Comscore, which compiles box office data. The PG-13 comedy collected an additional $182 million overseas. “Barbie” was released by Warner Bros. and cost $145 million to produce, not including marketing costs, which is substantial.
Box office analysts, who use complex formulas to predict ticket sales, expect “Barbie” to collect about $110 million in the United States and Canada. Concerned that the film might not perform to expectations, as several big-budget releases recently, including “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” Warner Bros. predicted. a conservative $75 million.
It ended up being the biggest opening of Gerwig’s career, by a moonshot, cementing her status as one of Hollywood’s young “name” filmmakers — directors recognized by mainstream ticket buyers as delivering singular work. (Jordan Peele is another, along with more established cohorts like Nolan and JJ Abrams.) Gerwig, who wrote the “Barbie” script with her partner, Noah Baumbach, previously directed “Little Women” (2019) and “Lady Bird (2017). She has been nominated for three Oscars.
It’s also the biggest opening on record for a female director, surpassing “Captain Marvel,” which was co-directed by Anna Boden and had $153.4 million in advance ticket sales in 2019.
“Barbie” arrived as a full-fledged cultural event, with thousands of moviegoers dressing in pink for screenings, memes of the doll flooding social media, and marketers scrambling (sometimes awkwardly) to seize the moment. The audience is 65 percent female. “For a pink movie, you’d expect the audience to be closer to 90 percent female — we got a ton of men,” said Jeff Goldstein, president of domestic distribution at Warner Bros. “It exploded everywhere: big markets, small markets, coast to coast.”
“Oppenheimer” helped fuel “Barbie” and vice versa, with their simultaneous release nicknamed Barbenheimer and movie fans captivated by their wild incongruity. Nolan’s film, which cost Universal Pictures at least $100 million to make, not including a megawatt marketing campaign, is a three-hour drama about Robert Oppenheimer, the man known as the “father of the atomic bomb.” AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest theater chain, said more than 60,000 people bought tickets to see “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” as a double feature.
Universal said the R-rated “Oppenheimer” collected an estimated $80.5 million in the United States and Canada – about 60 percent more than analysts predicted before release – and an additional $94 million overseas. The domestic audience is 62 percent male. Some IMAX locations showing “Oppenheimer” are sold out for the coming weeks, particularly those showing the film in 70-millimeter.
“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” received euphoric reviews from critics. Ticket buyers gave each film an A grade in CinemaScore exit polls.