'Barbenheimer' frenzy gives sluggish summer box office a major boost
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[July 24, 2023]
By Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -The much-hyped "Barbenheimer" box office battle
over the weekend proved to be a win for movie theaters that needed to
add some sizzle to their summer.
Ticket sales for the film industry's biggest season had been
disappointing through much of June and July. "The Flash" flopped, a new
"Indiana Jones" adventure underwhelmed, and Tom Cruise's latest
"Mission: Impossible" movie opened short of expectations. Hollywood also
is grappling with strikes by writers and actors.
Enter "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer," two polar opposite movies that debuted
simultaneously in a matchup dubbed "Barbenheimer."
"Barbie" stars Margot Robbie in a brightly colored comedy about the
iconic doll, while "Oppenheimer" tells a haunting story about the making
of the atomic bomb.
The two titles had cinemas buzzing over the weekend and filled with
"Barbie" fans dressed in pink. Domestic ticket sales for all movies
topped $300 million in the United States and Canada for just the fourth
time in history. "Barbie" hauled in $155 million of that and
"Oppenheimer collected $80.5 million, according to studio estimates on
Sunday.
"Everybody was in," said Jeff Bock, senior box office analyst at
Exhibitor Relations Co. "All demographics showed up for these two films,
and it's exactly what Hollywood needed."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jul/24/images/ads/current/peasley_sda_PROMGRAD_2023.png)
Cinema going still lags pre-pandemic levels, prompting nagging questions
about whether audiences have grown content to watch movies at home.
Hopes were high going into the summer as COVID-clogged production
pipelines cleared and studios scheduled 30% more films than last summer.
But through mid-July, 2023 summer box office receipts were running about
7% below last year.
'BARBIE' SHINES
Then, "Barbenheimer" became a cultural moment, sending crowds to AMC
Entertainment, Cineplex and other cinema chains. More than 200,000
people purchased tickets to see "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" on the same
day, according to the National Association of Theatre Owners.
Now, summer domestic ticket sales stand roughly 1% ahead of the same
point in 2022, research firm Comscore said, while year-to-date totals
are up 16% from 2022.
Still, the $5.4 billion total so far this year ranks 19% behind the
pre-pandemic times of 2019.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jul/24/images/ads/current/napa_sda_HEROES_2023.png)
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![](../images/072423PIX/ent_b.64.jpg)
America Ferrera and Margot Robbie attend
the European premiere of "Barbie" in London, Britain July 12, 2023.
REUTERS/Maja Smiejkowska/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jul/24/images/ads/current/debbiesfloral_lda_060123.png) Over the weekend, "Barbie" set
records as the biggest opening of 2023 and the highest of any movie
directed by a woman in history. It eclipsed the April opening of
"The Super Mario Bros. Movie."
"I'm tickled pink at this historic weekend," gushed Jeff Goldstein,
head of domestic theatrical distribution at Warner Bros, the studio
that released "Barbie." "People are having a great time. The
conversation is so upbeat and so positive."
Barbie maker Mattel Inc had launched an all-out global marketing
blitz to stoke the frenzy, lighting London landmarks in pink and
partnering on hundreds of products. "Barbie" took in $337 million
worldwide.
Not all of the "Barbie" buzz was positive. Some U.S. Republicans
objected to a map in the movie that they said was pro-China, which
prompted Vietnam to ban the film. Warner Bros said "Barbie" was not
making a geopolitical statement.
"Oppenheimer," from Comcast Corp's Universal Pictures, took in $174
million globally, a strong start for a three-hour adult drama. The
film stars Cillian Murphy as scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the
man who developed the atomic bomb that ended World War Two.
"This feels like a (pre-COVID) weekend where a big Marvel movie or a
Star Wars movie or a big Disney movie came out, but this didn't
involve any of those things," said Box Office Pro senior analyst
Shawn Robbins. "With the right content out there, people want to go
see it on the big screen."
While Hollywood celebrated the bustling weekend, cinemas face a
thinning slate ahead. The next big action movie on the schedule is
November's "Dune - Part 2."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jul/24/images/ads/current/graue_sda_042021.png)
Plus, the ongoing work stoppages could delay some upcoming titles,
and the industry still faces the reality that many 2023 movie
releases fell flat.
"A lot of these blockbusters just didn't go over well," Bock said.
"That's a problem for Hollywood because most of us expected the
industry to blow away the summer of 2022."
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Nick
Zieminski and Chris Reese)
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