Barbie, Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated toyland satire, is projected to dominate the box office competition with an estimated US opening of $110 million. The film, produced by Mattel Studios and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is expected to surpass Christopher Nolan’s biopic Oppenheimer, sparking a battle of the releases dubbed Barbenheimer.
Warner Bros, the distributor of Barbie, is taking a more conservative estimate, eyeing a $75 million start in the US. However, analysts believe Barbie could potentially reach as high as $140 million, breaking the record for the highest-opening film in the US made by a female director, currently held by Wonder Woman at $103 million.
On the other hand, Nolan’s Oppenheimer, with a budget of $100 million and starring Cillian Murphy as the alleged father of the atomic bomb, is projected to open to $50 million in the US and at least $100 million worldwide. However, Barbie holds the advantage with a release in 4,200 cinemas, 600 more than Oppenheimer. Additionally, Oppenheimer’s longer runtime allows for fewer showings.
The showdown between Barbie and Oppenheimer has generated significant buzz in the industry, capturing the attention of moviegoers. In fact, AMC recently revealed that over 40,000 people have booked tickets to see both films on opening day.
Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst at Comcast, expressed his astonishment at the competition, stating, “I’ve never quite seen anything like this in my 30 years of tracking and analyzing box office trends and movies.”
While this summer has seen both box office successes, such as Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse, and notable flops like The Flash, projections indicate that Barbie and Oppenheimer have the potential to revitalize the industry.
Despite the ongoing pandemic, Disney’s Super Mario Bros Movie, released in April, remains the only film this year to surpass $1 billion in worldwide revenue, with over $1.3 billion. However, ticket sales in the US are still down by 20% compared to the same period in 2019 before the pandemic affected the box office.
As movie lovers eagerly await the release of Barbie and Oppenheimer, their success could provide a much-needed boost to the film industry and reignite interest in theaters. The stage is set for a fierce battle between these two highly anticipated films, and only time will tell which will come out on top.