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‘Barbie’ still gorgeous with best YTD $155M opening; ‘Oppenheimer’ ticking to $80M in incredible $300M+ US box office weekend
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- Authors
- Anthony D'Alessandro
- Published
- Jul 23 2023
- Word count
- 3229 words
So Barbie ended up being a little bit frontloaded. Probably due to the internet hype and memes. But still incredible opening. It’s technically higher than Mario’s (Mario opened over 5-days but its three day weekend was 145).
The Barbenheimer hysteria really boosted both films. If I had to say, Oppenheimer benefitted the most. It ended up being Nolan’s highest opening weekend for a non Batman movie, beating Inception.
But it’s a much needed win for the box office in what’s ended up being a pretty disappointing summer and what will probably end up being a disappointing fall.
I saw both movies. Oppenheimer is the better movie, I don’t even think it’s that out there to say it. I think it’ll be placed alongside There Will Be Blood as one of the best cinematic epics of the 21st century.
I liked Barbie, I don’t think it’s the masterpiece a lot of online people think it is, but I get why they’re into it the same way I got why they were into EEAAO (millennnial humor, and in this case millennnial twitter discourse). But overall I had fun with Barbie, even if it still hasn't connected with me as it being a real thing that exists.
Its weird to watch both the best film of one Director and then the worst film of the other Director.
I do not consider Oppenheimer to be in the same discussion as There Will Be Blood, nor do I consider it Nolan's best work. There's plenty of signature Nolan expository dialogue that feels unnatural. It's the weakest part of the film. For example (minor spoiler):
Minor dialogue spoilers
The line "Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds" was shoe-horned in to the film in such an awkward fashion. In the middle of a sex scene, Florence Pugh opens a book and asks Cillian Murphy to read a line from the Bhagavad Gita. Some of Oppenheimer's most historic words used completely out of context. In reality he said this line in 1965, 20 years after the bombing of Hiroshima. This was a line that could have ended the film, rather it was spoken to allude to what we're about to watch before he even knows of the Manhattan project.Most of the scenes with Robert Downey Jr were pure expository dialogue as well. In a three hour film, there wasn't time to properly show everything that was packed into the story. So we get RDJ explaining his motivations like some sort of Bond villain.
I saw both movies as well and I will definitely be rewatching Barbie, probably in theater at least once more. Seems unlikely I'll be spending another three hours with Oppenheimer anytime soon. Barbie isn't a cinematic masterpiece, but it does know what it's about and has fun doing it.
I could not agree more, and would even take it further to say that it was not really a good movie at all, solely because of Christopher Nolan. IMO it was just him taking a pretty cool story on its own, with great acting and scenes, and throwing it in a SlapChop for a bit and adding some insanely loud audio over the unclear dialogue. It could be a good movie, but the way it's edited is wack.
Deadline released another article so I'll just attach it here.
Barbie
–Largest Domestic Opening of 2023 year to date, besting Super Mario Bros.‘ $146.4 3-day weekend.
–Largest Warner Bros. Advance Sales ever at $49.5M
–Largest Pre‐Shows of 2023 YTD besting the $17.5M apiece made by Ant‐Man & the Wasp Quantumania and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3.
–Largest Grossing Day of 2023 YTD, $70.8M, besting Super Mario Bros Movie‘s $54.8M.
–Largest Opening for a female directed film stateside, outstripping Captain Marvel‘s $153.4M.
–Second highest opening for a movie from a woman filmmaker, second to Captain Marvel‘s $456.6M global start (unadjusted for currency swings and inflation).
–Largest Non‐Sequel, Non‐Remake film released in July beating The Secret Life Of Pets‘ $104.4M start in 2016.
–Largest domestic opening for Greta Gerwig as a Director (Prior: Little Woman ‐ $16.8M)
–Largest domestic opening for Margot Robbie (Prior: Suicide Squad ‐ $133.7m)
–Largest domestic opening for Ryan Gosling (Prior: Blade Runner 2049 ‐ $32.8m)
–Overseas, Barbie is the biggest launch for Gerwig, Gosling and Robbie.
–Largest Opening Weekend for a Movie Based on a Toy (Prior: Transformers: Dark of the Moon ‐ $115.9m)
–Largest WB Non‐Sequel/Non‐DC Opening (Prior: It ‐ $123.4m)
—Barbie has already surpassed the lifetime grosses of many of other female-led movies including Ocean’s 8 ($297.7M), Bird of Prey ($205.3M) and Little Women ($218.8M).
Oppenheimer
–Christopher Nolan’s third highest grossing opening weekend ever after, both global and domestic The Dark Knight Rises ($249M, $161M ) and The Dark Knight ($198M, $158M).
–The biggest global day & date opening weekend ever for a biopic outpegging Bohemian Rhapsody ($124M). Stateside, it’s the 3rd biggest start for a biopic after American Sniper ($89.2M) and Passion of the Christ ($83.8M).
–The biggest global opening for a drama since 2019 ahead of Creed III ($100.2M).
–The highest grossing opening weekend for an R-rated film YTD beating out John Wick: Chapter 4 ($73.8M).
–Biggest Imax opening for a Christopher Nolan movie and biggest Imax for a Universal title in U.S. Canada and biggest for July overall and 2023 YTD with $21.1M.
–Third biggest international B.O. opening for a Nolan film in like-for-likes behind Dark Knight Rises ($131M) and Dark Knight ($94.2M). Imax has grossed $13.9M of the international total from only 329 screens making it offshore the biggest Imax start for Nolan, the month of July and the biggest Imax weekend in Mexico, India, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Czech Republic.
–The biggest non-superhero Nolan opening weekend in 55 markets including UK & Ireland, France, Germany, Australia, Mexico, Spain and Brazil.
–The biggest opening day for a Nolan film in 33 markets including Saudi Arabia, U.A.E. India, Netherlands, Argentina and Belgium.
As a 'mall kid' growing up in the '90s and 2000s, summer at the movies was a staple. Some of my most cherished memories. I have not been to the theaters for at least 4-5 years now, even before the pandemic I went less and less. I am fussier than the average person and found going to the movies a painful experience more times than not. Add to that the costs of all these streaming platforms I am already paying for (Netflix, Max, Prime, Apple TV+, YouTube TV, etc.) don't make me feel like spending more on one movie ticket.
That being said, this weekend tempted me more than ever in the past 10ish years to go. I don't remember a stronger summer blockbuster lineup in years. Barbie, Oppenheimer, Mission Impossible, Indiana Jones... there's a lot to choose and a lot of hype! I'm still on the fence if I dip my toe back into going to the theater and maybe cancelling some of these streaming services which the content is getting worse and worse anyway.
I'm not really a movie person in general, in cinema or at home. But the memes and my friends have convinced me to watch both movies in a row this week. The marketing power is unbelievable here. When I walk outside I see barbie themed burgers, barbie clothing displays in the windows, on youtube I'm getting recommendations for "barbiecore" interior design. The only thing I can think of which come close to this level of marketing would be Shrek.
I enjoy seeing movies but I do not care about the state of the 'box office' for its own sake. I want movies that i personally like, not that films that are successful from a profits point of view.
Profits are just a proxy for popularity. Critics and review scores are heavily warped by bias and insular thinking. Critics can absolutely love a movie while the general public does not show any interest.
You should consider filtering out the
box officetag if that's the case. Since almost every topic with that tag focuses mostly on that aspect of the film industry.These numbers never mean anything to me unless they're adjusted for inflation. It's kind of a peeve.
Adjusted for inflation compared to what?
Is it a huge jump to infer the poster means it should be adjusted the way movies are normally adjusted by inflation? Its not like its an uncommon thing to do
But to what are we adjusting to? What year? Most of the time box office numbers are adjusted to the current year so we get a modern context of how much they made.
The article is talking about Barbie having the highest opening of this year. So what are we adjusting to?
The parent commenter probably just wants to qualify the language "incredible $300M" by comparing it to adjusted historical figures. It doesn't matter how you adjust it so long as its a fair basis of comparison.
It is pretty unusual for anything other than actual economic metrics to be denominated in real dollars. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen movie income reported adjusted for inflation - if you need to do a comparison you may adjust movies in the past into present dollars, but not really the other way around.
Do you have an example of a media outlet using real dollars instead of nominal?
I didn't think it was unusual. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Like OP said, those are adjusted to today's dollars. So the numbers in the title, $300m, $155m, $80m are already adjusted for inflation, because they are already in today's dollars by default, having occurred a few days ago. Those aren't in real dollars, as real GDP is.
Oh ok thanks I understand what OP is saying better now. I still feel like we're talking passed eachother. A way to solve parent posters complaint would be something like "best opening weekend since abc or in top x most successful opening weekends of all time". As I said before, the 300m number means little by itself, so just looking for a basis of comparison
The title does have that. Barbie has the highest opening weekend Year To Date. The 300 number is just the amount for the weekend total.
imo 6 months is not long enough to matter
That's half way through the year and there aren't any movies left that are going to open that high.
OP, with respect, I really feel you aren't understanding what im trying to say here
Oh you're trying to say that a movie having the highest opening weekend of the year is not news worthy or doesn't matter. In which case I disagree. It's still impressive, especially for a non-action comedy film that was primarily targeted at women.
No, I'm trying to say the headline would benefit from comparing this years top peformer to historical top performers. Not trying to take away from it in the least. I want to better understand its performance in context