The box office held strong for a second week for the Barbenheimer double feature. It seems that with the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, these two blockbusters may have to hold over movie theaters for the time being.
Barbenheimer powers forward as both Barbie and Oppenheimer continued their box office dominance domestically and worldwide. The two films seem poised to linger near the top of the box office earnings week after week with the continuation of the SAG-AFTRA strike causing upcoming movie releases to be pushed back.
Barbie continues to be the real winner for another weekend, making $93 million in its second weekend (a 43% drop). It’s the biggest second weekend for a Warner Bros. movie ever. Barbie’s total now sits at $351 million domestically and $775 million worldwide (already ranking third in the worldwide box office for 2023 and will soon surpass Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 for third for the domestic box office this year).
Oppenheimer also saw positive week-over-week totals. Adding another $46 million in the United States, Oppenheimer claims a domestic box office total of $174 million in two weeks. It’s a real feat given that historical biopics tend to struggle at the box office, and that Oppenheimer’s runtime sits at three hours.
The drop for Oppenheimer was similar to Barbie, perhaps suggesting that Barbenheimer double-features may still be contributing to these final totals. Strong word-of-mouth for both films may also be a strong factor (Oppenheimer’s rotten tomatoes score is 94% and Barbie’s rotten tomatoes score is 89%). Oppenheimer’s worldwide box office total now sits at just over $400 million – again, pretty remarkable.
The rest of the box office this weekend may have spelled disaster for the studio’s responsible for their products. Disney’s Haunted Mansion debuted with an unremarkable (and unsurprising) $24 million. Not great for a movie with a budget of $150 million. This surely means Haunted Mansion may be available on Disney+ sooner rather than later.
Sound of Freedom took home another $14 million – important because the ANGEL Productions-backed release has now out-grossed Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One domestically. A bit of personal angst here: the industry is doomed if Tom Cruise can’t beat out this QAnon heartthrob. Perhaps Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie and co. were a bit too confident in the brand to release this movie a week before Barbenheimer took over the world.
A24’s newest horror hit Talk to Me scared up $10 million in its opening weekend – the second best opening for an A24-backed horror movie, right after Ari Aster’s Hereditary opened at $13.6. Perhaps the indie studio is seeing a surge post-Everything Everywhere All at Once dominating at the Academy Awards earlier this year.
I expect next week may be a bit less predictable given the upcoming release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. This seems to be the premiere children’s flick for the remainder of the summer, I suspect it’ll do quite well in its opening few weeks. I look forward to seeing this one.
READ MORE: Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan, Barbie, Mission: Impossible
2023 Worldwide Box Office from Mojo