Barbie And Oppenheimer Have Phenomenal Second Weekends At The Box Office While A24's Talk To Me Impresses

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Another great weekend for cinema.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After months of hype, it was proven last weekend that the Barbenheimer phenomenon wasn't just an internet craze. The combination of Greta Gerwig's Barbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer hit theaters like a pink bombshell and both titles broke a whole bunch of records. It was terrifically exciting to see – but even more exiting was the promise that neither movie would end up with front loaded box office results. It was made clear that they were likely to stay at the top of the box office charts for a while.

Now the second numbers are in, and they are stunning. Not only did both Barbie and Oppenheimer have minimal weekend-to-weekend drops, but the new A24 horror movie, Danny and Michael Philppou's Talk To Me, also made quite a splash. Check out the full Top 10 below, and join me after for analysis.

Weekend Box Office Barbie July 28-30, 2023

TITLE    WEEKEND GROSS    DOMESTIC GROSS    LW    THTRS

1. Barbie    $93,000,000    $351,403,000    1    4,337
2. Oppenheimer    $46,200,000    $174,060,000    2    3,647
3. Haunted Mansion*    $24,200,000    $24,200,000    N/A    3,740
4. Sound Of Freedom    $12,409,300    $148,972,065    3    3,411
5. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1    $10,725,000    $139,233,000    4    3,191
6. Talk To Me*    $10,028,632    $10,028,632    N/A    2,340
7. Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny    $4,000,000    $167,084,867    5    2,165
8. Elemental    $3,400,000    $144,983,672    7    2,105
9. Insidious: The Red Door    $3,175,000    $78,082,000    6    1,914
10. Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse    $1,440,000    $378,796,000    8    833

Barbie and Oppenheimer Both Have Sub-45 Percent Weekend-To-Weekend Drops In Stunning Second Weekend

As reported last Sunday, the opening weekend for Barbie and Oppenheimer was a success that was about far more than just the number of tickets that the individual movies sold (though those are some high numbers). What was arguably more important is that audiences went into both movies hyped and walked away satisfied. Both films earned high marks from critics prior to their release, and the general public responded by basically matching the enthusiasm – as evidenced by Audience ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and matching "A" grades from CinemaScore surveys.

This positivity suggested that both features would continue to draw crowds in the following Friday-to-Sunday stretch, and that suggestion has proven to be true now that the latest box office results are in from The Numbers.

Barbie opened at number one by earning $162 million domestically; it's now added another $93 million. Oppenheimer debuted making $82.5 million; now, it has followed up that performance by bringing in an additional $42.6 million. Respectively, those are 43 percent and 44 percent drops, and that's astounding to see in this era of box office reporting. It has become disturbingly standard for blockbusters to fall 60 percent or more after big starts since 2021 (Peyton Reed's Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania executed a 70 percent earlier this year), but Barbenheimer has proven to be a powerful exception.

Cillian Murphy walks down a road at base camp in Oppenheimer.

Both movies have been quickly climbing up the domestic and worldwide box office charts.

After having the biggest opening of 2023 in the United States and Canada, Barbie is already ranked as the fourth biggest film of the year so far, having made $351.4 million at home. It will only need to make about $27.4 million more to hop over both James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ($351.4 million) and Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K. Thompson, and Kemp Powers' Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ($378.8 million) and reach second place. It will need to make another $222.7 million to surpass the earnings of the number one domestic hit, Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic's The Super Mario Bros. Movie... which doesn't seem impossible.

Globally, Barbie has made $774.5 million, which pushes it past Louis Leterrier's Fast X ($720.2 million) on the charts. It sits behind only Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ($837.9 million) and The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($1.4 billion). 

Oppenheimer, meanwhile, is now the eighth highest earning domestic release of the year, and thirteenth internationally. Having made $174.1 billion in the United States and Canada), it is now only about $14 million away from outgrossing Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, and its global haul of $400.4 million means that, when looked at compared to the director's filmography, it has already outgrossed both Tenet ($360.2 million) and Batman Begins ($356.8 million)

How long will the good times continue to roll? That's not clear at this point, and that's tremendously exciting. Both films could continue to be huge hits through the rest of summer, which would be a big lift for the industry.

Talk To Me Impresses With The Second Best Opening Weekend For An A24 Release

To keep the good news flow going, there is also a lot of reason for cinephiles to be excited about what Talk To Me did this past weekend. With zero context, a sixth place start with $10 million earned doesn't seem like much to write home about, but it's truly another big win for original horror.

This is a movie that cost under $10 million to produce, is made by a fair of first-time directors, features no "Billed Above the Title" stars, and was mostly sold on the positive word of mouth that was conjured after screenings at major festivals. Audiences were promised a terrifying cinematic experience, and movie-goers are really into that right now. This worked for Zach Cregger's Barbarian, Parker Finn's Smile and Damien Leone's Terrifier 2 in 2022, and it's worked for Talk To Me in 2023.

It's another terrific win for A24, which has earned a tremendous reputation among genre fans. According to Variety, the $10 million made by the clever new possession film is the studio's second biggest wide release opening ever behind only Ari Aster's Hereditary (which made $13.6 million when it hit theaters in 2018 and $44.1 million domestically by the end of its run).

Like with Barbie and Oppenheimer, audiences are digging Talk To Me as much as critics, which could mean very exciting things long term. It will be a title to keep an eye on for the rest of the season.

Haunted Mansion Nabs Third Place... But Is Another 2023 Title In Trouble Because Of Its High Budget

Looking exclusively at ticket sales, Christopher McQuarrie's Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 and James Mangold's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny seem like obvious hits, as both films to date have made over $350 million worldwide... but as previously reported, there is an extreme catch with both titles: both cost about $300 million to make, and that doesn't include the expenses of publicity and marketing. 

Justin Simien's Haunted Mansion is now in a similar boat. The film's budget was only about half of the aforementioned blockbusters ($150 million, per Variety), but that high cost is now spoiling what would otherwise be recognized as a solid opening weekend at the box office.

The movie based on the beloved Haunted Mansion Disneyland attraction made $24.2 million this weekend, which is the twenty-second best start for a film released in 2023 – the title sandwiched between Lee Cronin's Evil Dead Rise ($24.5 million) and Elizabeth Banks' Cocaine Bear ($22.3 million). Barring an unexpected run through all of August that sees it linger in the Top 10 a la Peter Sohn's Elemental and/or overperformance overseas, the feature is in trouble.

The first thing standing in Haunted Mansion's way is direct competition for its target audience, as Jeff Rowe's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is coming to theaters this Wednesday, August 4. How will it and Ben Wheatley's Meg 2: The Trench (hitting cinemas on Friday) fare against the powerhouses that are presently playing. Head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to find out, and plan out your theater-going plans for the rest of the year with our 2023 Movie Release Calendar.