LOS ANGELES — 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.”
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 Theater 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.
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, which was directed by Greta Gerwig and stars Margot Robbie in the title role, was expected to generate between $140 million and $175 million in its domestic debut, according to industry tracker Boxoffice Pro. Forecasts rose sharply in recent weeks as the picture enjoyed a surge in media attention. The movie made an additional $182 million in international markets, Warner Bros. said.
The picture pokes fun at the history of the doll while addressing criticisms about her unrealistic figure and materialistic nature. It follows the character as she breaks out of the perfect world created by toymaker Mattel, Inc. and into one with real people on whom the doll has had an impact.
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. The film was heavily promoted, even by Hollywood standards, including a life-size replica of Barbie’s Dreamhouse in Malibu, California, and giant pink boxes in theaters in which fans could have their photo taken. Many cinemagoers, including adults, wore pink or dressed like characters from the film. Barbie took in $337 million worldwide.
Ryan Gosling, appearing as Barbie’s boyfriend Ken, brought a comedic element that likely resonated with fans who might not otherwise have wanted to see a film about a fashion doll, according to Robert Marich, author of Marketing to Moviegoers: A Handbook of Strategies and Tactics. This was evident in trailers and other promotions.
“The Ken marketing was hilarious,” he said.
The success of the picture is also a victory for El Segundo, California-based Mattel, which is seeking to adapt a sprawling roster of toy brands from Hot Wheels to Barney into film and TV properties.
Not all of the Barbie buzz was positive. Some US 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 II.
Oppenheimer also had a lot going for it. Director Christopher Nolan’s new picture has a three-week lock on Imax theaters domestically. Nearly half of Oppenheimer’s ticket sales in the US and Canada were for so-called premium large format screens, with IMAX screens accounting for 26% of the domestic box office performance.
Mr. Nolan has traditionally put out his movies, such as The Dark Knight and Inception, on the third weekend of July. A fierce advocate for cinemas, he moved to Universal from Warner Bros. after the latter released his film Tenet simultaneously on streaming in 2020.
“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.
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,” Mr. Bock said. “That’s a problem for Hollywood because most of us expected the industry to blow away the summer of 2022.” — Reuters/Bloomberg
