It’s a “Barbenheimer” world and we’re just living in it.
Variety reports that the collective force of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” continued to rule the box office in their second weekends of release, providing another needed jolt as two Hollywood strikes threaten the fragile exhibition industry.
Barbie again led the way, adding a massive US$93 million between Friday and Sunday.
Ticket sales for “Barbie” declined just 43 percent from its debut and resulted in the seventh-biggest second weekend in history.
The only movies that enjoyed bigger outing tallies were US billion-dollar ones like “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (US$149 million), “Avengers: Endgame” (US$147 million) and “Infinity War” (US$114 million), “Black Panther” (US$111 million), “Jurassic World” (US$106 million) and “The Avengers” (US$103 million).
Christopher Nolan’s dark historical drama, Oppenheimer also had a stellar outing, taking in a mighty US$46.6 million over the weekend. According to Universal, it became the first R-rated film to gross more than US$10 million for seven days in a row on Friday — that streak extended to 10 days through the weekend.
After two weeks on the big screen, “Barbie” has generated US$351.4 million in North America to stand as the fourth-biggest domestic release of the year. Globally, the Warner Bros. film has grossed more than US$750 million and ranks as the third-largest film of the year.
Meanwhile, “Oppenheimer” has earned US$174 million at the domestic box office and US$400 million at the global box office. It has already outperformed the lifetime grosses of two prior Nolan efforts, “Tenet” (US$365 million) and “Batman Begins” (US$373 million).
[Source: variety]
