Barbie, a comedy about the famous fashion doll, and Oppenheimer, a biography of the inventor of the atomic bomb, brought out movie fans in droves, helping box office revenue this weekend more than double from a year earlier to about US$302-million.

Warner Bros’ Barbie was the top picture in US and Canadian cinemas, taking in $155-million in ticket sales, researcher Comscore said on Sunday. That also gave it the highest-grossing debut of the year, edging past the $146.4-million haul from April’s The Super Mario Bros Movie. The film made its debut the same weekend as director Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which brought in $80.5-million.

An estimated 200 000-plus moviegoers bought tickets to see both new releases on the same day at chains such as AMC Entertainment Holdings and Cineworld Group’s Regal, a phenomenon dubbed “Barbenheimer”. The simultaneous releases energised theatregoers, helping cinemas turn in the best weekend since Avengers: Endgame made its debut in April 2019.

Other notable performers include Sound of Freedom, a film about child sex trafficking, which took in about $20.1-million in its third weekend, according to ComScore. The unlikely summer hit beat out Paramount Pictures’ Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, which fell to fourth place with $19.5-million.

The weekend was a bright spark in an otherwise difficult northern hemisphere summer for the film industry, which has suffered disappointing results from big-budget movies such as The Flash and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

Barbie, which was directed by Greta Gerwig and stars Margot Robbie in the title role, was expected to generate between $140-million and $175-million in its domestic debut, according to industry tracker Boxoffice Pro. Forecasts rose sharply in recent weeks as the picture enjoyed a surge in media attention. The movie made an additional $182-million in international markets, Warner Bros said.

Pokes fun

The picture pokes fun at the history of the doll while addressing criticisms about her unrealistic figure and materialistic nature. It follows the character as she breaks out of the perfect world created by toymaker Mattel and into one with real people on whom the doll has had an impact.

Barbie was heavily promoted, even by Hollywood standards, including a life-size replica of her Dreamhouse in Malibu, California, and giant pink boxes in theatres in which fans could have their photo taken. Many cinemagoers, including adults, wore pink or dressed like characters from the film.

Ryan Gosling, appearing as Barbie’s boyfriend Ken, brought a comedic element that likely resonated with fans who might not otherwise have wanted to see a film about a fashion doll, according to Robert Marich, author of Marketing to Moviegoers: A Handbook of Strategies and Tactics. This was evident in trailers and other promotions.

“The Ken marketing was hilarious,” he said.

The success of the picture is also a victory for El Segundo, California-based Mattel, which is seeking to adapt a sprawling roster of toy brands from Hot Wheels to Barney into film and TV properties.

Universal Pictures’ Oppenheimer also had a lot going for it. Director Nolan’s new picture has a three-week lock on Imax theatres in the US. Nearly half of Oppenheimer’s ticket sales in the US and Canada were for so-called premium large-format screens, with Imax screens accounting for 26% of the domestic box office performance.

Nolan has traditionally put out his movies, such as The Dark Knight and Inception, on the third weekend of July. A fierce advocate for cinemas, he moved to Universal from Warner Bros after the latter released his film Tenet simultaneously on streaming in 2020. — Thomas Buckley, (c) 2023 Bloomberg