So, Barbenheimer delivered on all that hype (and profited from it). After months of breathless speculation, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer have opened to spectacular figures at the world box office.
It was always likely that Barbie, the shocking-pink, feminist treatment of the fashion doll, would pass out Nolan’s biopic of the eponymous nuclear scientist – and so it proved.
Gerwig’s film took a whopping $337 million (€304 million) at the world box office. Oppenheimer, remarkably for a sombre film on a historical topic, about $174 million (€157 million) – Warner Bros’s best opening figure since the start of the pandemic.
Gerwig scored the second-biggest opening weekend ever for a woman director, and the biggest ever for a woman in North America. Nolan’s haul is only 7 per cent below that taken by The Dark Knight Rises, his previous best opener, but that 2012 film profited from the presence of comic-book icon Batman. Oppenheimer features a furrowed Cillian Murphy as the father of the atomic bomb.
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Both films received excellent reviews and appear to have gone down well with early audiences. The influential CinemaScore market research company reported that both titles registered an average “A” rating with exiting cinemagoers. That bodes well for future sales.
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The UK and Ireland — reported together, like Canada and the US — was the largest market outside North America with $13.3 million (€12 million) for Oppenheimer and $22.9 million (€ 20.7 million) for Barbie. Initial reports suggest the turnout in Ireland has been particularly huge. The Light House in Dublin and Pálás in Galway, sister art house-leaning venues, enjoyed their busiest weekends ever. Scoring 6,318 visits, the Light House, which reopened in Smithfield 11 years ago, annihilated its previous record of 4,373, set in 2020 (when Gerwig’s Little Women was still in cinemas). Screen averages for Barbie and Oppenheimer in the Republic were reported at, respectively, €26,057 and €14,650.
When news initially emerged that two such prominent titles were set to open against one another on July 21st, many box office analysts felt one or the other would eventually have to move. By the start of the year, however, the apparent stark contrast between the projects sparked such interest that mutually beneficial symbiosis took over.
The supposed Barbenheimer rivalry really kicked into gear at the start of the summer. Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, star of Barbie, were pictured buying tickets for Oppenheimer. Cillian Murphy gently undermined the notion there was no overlap between potential demographics. “My advice would be for people to go see both, on the same day,” he said. “If they are good films, then that’s cinema’s gain.”
There seems little doubt that the dual publicity has benefited both productions. Barbie and Oppenheimer contributed to the best global weekend market total of 2023. Further buoyed up Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible with $74.5 million (€67 million), the world’s box offices took in $783 million (€705 million) overall.
It will be interesting to see what lessons the studios learn. The success of Oppenheimer argues for intelligent drama aimed at adult audiences. The success of Barbie asks as many questions as it answers. Yes, the film is not a part of an existing franchise – neither sequel nor remake – but it does profit from the Mattel doll’s name recognition. The strong feminist message and the clever postmodern writing may encourage more adventure in the mainstream. It is, however, equally likely the studios will just make more films about toys.
Replicating the Barbenheimer rivalry will surely be impossible. It feels like a rare accident.
