Its a Barbenheimer world and were just living in it.
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.
Greta Gerwigs cotton candy-colored fantasy comedy again led the way, adding a massive $93 million between Friday and Sunday. Ticket sales for Barbie declined just 43% from its debut and resulted in the seventh-biggest second weekend in history. The only movies that enjoyed bigger sophomore outing tallies were billion-dollar behemoths Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($149 million), Avengers: Endgame ($147 million) and Infinity War ($114 million), Black Panther ($111 million), Jurassic World ($106 million) and The Avengers ($103 million).
Christopher Nolans dark historical drama also had a stellar sophomore outing, taking in a mighty $46.6 million over the weekend. According to Universal, it became the first R-rated film to gross more than $10 million for seven days in a row on Friday that streak extended to 10 days through the weekend.
Weekend two proves the outpouring of interest in Barbie and Oppenheimer a week ago was not a fluke, says Paul Dergarabedian, a senior Comscore analyst. Both films put up second weekend numbers that would have been considered solid as debuts and reflect two of the best sophomore session holds in box office history.
After two weeks on the big screen, Barbie has generated $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 $750 million and ranks as the third-largest film of the year.
Meanwhile, Oppenheimer has earned $174 million at the domestic box office and $400 million at the global box office. It has already outperformed the lifetime grosses of two prior Nolan efforts, Tenet ($365 million) and Batman Begins ($373 million).
Two new movies, Disneys remake of Haunted Mansion and A24s violent thriller Talk to Me, attempted to entice audiences in the wake of Barbenheimer, to varied results. (Of course, nobody could predict the dominant punch of the two blockbusters when release dates were set.)
Haunted Mansion debuted in third place with $24.6 million from 3,700 North American theaters. The film added $9.1 million at the international box office, bringing its worldwide tally to $33 million. Its not a great result for a kid-centric tentpole and it probably didnt help that the Halloween-esque film opened in July. Disney spent $150 million to produce the film and tens of millions on promotional efforts. So, the film has a high bar to reach profitability, at least in its theatrical run.
It doesnt bode well that audiences were mixed on Haunted Mansion, which has a B+ CinemaScore. Directed by Justin Simien and starringLaKeith Stanfield,Rosario Dawson, Tiffany Haddish and Owen Wilson, the film takesinspiration from the Disney theme park ride and follows a single mother and her son, who move into a haunted mansion.
Disney gets additional value from its productions for its other divisions in this case, the film promotes its theme parks, says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. But setting that aside, the movie has a long climb to break-even.
The low-budget Talk to Me generated a healthy $10 million from 2,340 theaters across the U.S. Those ticket sales exceeded expectations and were enough to land in sixth place. Its the second-biggest start in wide release ever for A24, following Hereditary with $13.6 million.
Talk to Me is the feature debut of Australian YouTube stars Danny and Michael Philippou. Reviews and word-of-mouth have been positive, which helped the film to break out at the box office. It centers on a group of friends who discovers how to conjure spirits, which is all fun and games until one of them unleashes a horrifying supernatural force.
This is an excellent opening for an indie horror picture made on a budget of $4.5 million, says Gross. The horror genre continues to be a very creative space for new and developing talent.
Elsewhere at the domestic box office, the independent juggernaut Sound of Freedom added $13.6 million from 3,411 theaters in its fifth weekend of release.The thriller about child sex traffickinghas generated $150 million to date, making it the 12th-highest grossing domestic release of the year. Remarkably, Sound of Freedom has earned more money in North America than big-budget tentpoles like Fast X ($145 million), Pixars Elemental ($142 million) and Tom Cruises Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One ($139 million).
Mission: Impossible took the No. 5 spot on domestic charts with $10.7 million from 3,191 venues in its third outing. Internationally, the film has generated $309.4 million for a global total of $448 million. Despite positive reviews, the $291 million-budgeted blockbuster has stumbled in the wake of Barbenheimer and will struggle to recover in its theatrical run.
Overall, the month of July was ahead by 1.4% compared to pre-pandemic times, while the entire box office for the year remains down roughly 20%.
July would have been a lukewarm month, but thenBarbieandOppenheimerarrived; moviegoing exploded, says Gross. Within one week, July caught up to its pre-pandemic average.