Box Office: Two SmashHits Temporarily Reinvigorate Movie Theaters
Monday, July 24, 2023 at 11:30PM by Nathaniel R
By now even people who don't pay attention to the movies (a depressing large amount of people) know that this weekend was historic. Barbenheimer broke all kinds of records and in just three days rescued the overall numbers of this summer. People seemed genuinely thrilled to be at the movies this past weekend, didn't they? At least they did in NYC where we witnessed the pink-clad mania. Oppenheimer viewers were harder to spot --no color uniting them -- but they were also out in droves as both movies had enormous, even historic weekends. So much for Hollywood's recent-history belief that you shouldn't open big movies opposite each other. Competition used to be the norm but it's been rare in recent years...
| Weekend Box Office July 21-23 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = Recommended |
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| WIDE (Over 600 Screens) | LIMITED / PLATFORM |
 BARBIE |
 THEATER CAMP |
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1🔺★ BARBIE $162 *NEW* 4243 screens |
1 ★ PAST LIVES $563k (cum. $10) 629 screens |
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2 🔺★ OPPENHEIMER $82.4 *NEW* 3610 screens |
2 🔺★ THEATER CAMP $280k (cum. $687k) 51 screens |
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3 SOUND OF FREEDOM $19.8 (cum. $124.4) 3285 screens
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3 ★ THE MIRACLE CLUB $186k (cum. $1.3) 271 screens |
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4 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE -DEAD RECKONING PART ONE $19.3 (cum. $118.6) 4321 screens |
4 TERRIFIER (re-release) $123k 400 screens |
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5 INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY $6.6 (cum. $158.9) 2885 screens |
5 GO WEST $50k *NEW* 24 screens |
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6 INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR $6.6 (cum. $71.1) 2554 screens |
6 🔺 AFIRE $24k (cum. $78k) 8 screens |
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7 ELEMENTAL $5.7 (cum. $137.1) 2720 screens |
7🔺 HAVE YOU GOT IT YET? THE STORY OF SYD BARRETT & PINK FLOYD (doc) $8k *NEW* 1 screen |
 NO HARD FEELINGS |
 LAKOTA NATION VS UNITED STATES |
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8 ★ SPIDER-MAN ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE $2.8 (cum. $375.2) 1669 screens |
7 SQUARING THE CIRCLE (doc) $5k (cum. $101k) 9 screens |
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9 TRANSFORMERS RISE OF THE BEASTS $1.1 (cum. $155.6) 834 screens |
8 THE LEAGUE (doc) $5K ($58k) 17 screens |
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10 ★ NO HARD FEELINGS $1.0 (cum. $49.2) 1017 screens |
9 CLOSE TO VERMEER (doc) $4k (cum. $150k) 10 screens |
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11 THE LITTLE MERMAID $695k (cum. $296.1) |
10 PSYCHO-PASS PROVIDENCE (anime) $3k (cum. $307k) 21 screens |
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only 11 movies in wide release |
11 ★ LAKOTA NATION VS US (doc) $3k (cum. $14k) 2 screens |
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12★ BLUE JEAN (UK) $1k (cum. $108k) 8 screens |
A sampling of the many box office records (though we're skipping the obscure or super 'conditional' records of which there are many) Barbenheimer broke...
- Barbie scored the biggest opening weekend of 2023 (thus far)
- Oppenheimer scored the biggest opening weekend of 2023 for a R rated film (thus far)
- Barbie scored the largest opening weekend of all time for...
...a film directed by a woman
... a film starring Margot Robbie
... a film starring Ryan Gosling
... a film directed by Greta Gerwig
... a film based on a toy
... a film released in July that wasn't a sequel or remake - Oppenheimer is the biggest opening of Chris Nolan's career outside of the Batman films
- Oppenheimer also had the biggest global opening for a biopic ever which is quite a surprise when you realize that the film it had to beat for that record was Bohemian Rhapsody (!!!) which eventually grossed $910 million worldwide.
In limited release there wasn't much happening though it's worth noting that Past Lives, the critical sensation sleeper hit of the early summer, has now passed $10 million at the box office which is downright miraculous when you stop to consider that it's a) an indie that's b) mostly subtitled and c) has no bankable stars was made by d) a director nobody had heard of e) with a hard to describe plot and f) it's not even close to Oscar season where sometimes fetching dramas can make good coin if voters notice them in time.
In fact, Past Lives has collected more at the US box office now than FOUR of last year's Best Picture nominees did (All Quiet on the Western Front, Triangle of Sadness, TÁR, and Women Talking) and if it can hold strong for another two weeks it'll beat The Banshees of Inisherin too!
Next weekend Barbie and Oppenheimer probably don't have much to fear but you never know. Disney's Haunted Mansion (which looks absolutely terrible... at least in trailer form) and a horror movie called Talk To Me are the new wide releases. In limited release we'll get the surfing action film Sons of Summer, the sex workers documentary Kokomo City, the critically acclaimed Spanish/French film The Beasts, the indie drama The Unknown Country starring Lily Gladstone, and the Native American drama War Pony.
What did you watch this past week? Or, rather, in what order did you watch Barbenheimer?
Barbie, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, box office
Reader Comments (10)
Hilariously I technically did NOT participate in Barbenheimer WEEKEND because I saw BARBIE on Thursday and OPPENHEIMER tonight (Monday). Either way, a fantastic movie weekend. Theaters just had so much ENERGY. Even tonight there were groups of people in Oppenheimer wearing pink!
Couldn't have happened to better directors, movies and casts. A great achievement for all!
Is it TOO early to talk about Downey Jr vs. Gosling at the Oscars?
I saw Barbie on Saturday wearing a Black Sabbath t-shirt while a large portion of the audience were women with a lot of them wearing pink. I felt like an Allan there but after the film ended. I was accepted as a Ken. I hope the film receives nominations for its screenplay, art direction, costume design, and acting nods for Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, and America Ferrera whose monologue got a lot of "yeah!" and cheers.
I am not as caught up in the Barbie hoopla,so i'll wait for a dvd,Oppenheimer intrigues me just for the cast and story but again i'll wait for the dvd.
I saw
New York New York Scorsese's love letter to old Hollywood,contains Liza's 2nd best performance and one of De Niro;s worst.
Everybody Wins 1990 Winger/Nolte comedy thriller,Arthur iller wrote it and I expected more.
The Turning Point Wonderful Bancrofy and MacLaine drama with great support from Tom Skerritt and Martha Scott
I got all caught up in the Barbenheimer fever. I made my way out to the burbs and saw both in sold out showings in mega-theaters. It was great to see people excited to be at the movies again. I hope studios take note that the Marvel/DC movies are fine, and who doesn't love a B-grade horror movie from time to time, but we need really good original movies. People will go to the theater if there is something good and original to watch (just look at how well Past Lives is doing).
Oppenheimer - That first hour is really long and boring and kind of a disaster (someone has to start editing Nolan). And yeah, Blunt and Pugh are kind of wasted. But after that first hour, this one gets good. The test scene is just so wonderfully structured and so well done. And while I sat through the first hour thinking "I could have waited to watch this at home," watching the last 2 hours in the theater was totally worth it. Is it weird to say that I found RDJ the perfect foil for Murphy? Murphy is largely sedate in the movie (by design, I believe), but RDJ has this method of acting with his entire body (the little head turns, the hand movements) that is just so effective. Yeah, RDJ has a few scene-chewing moments (not his fault). But I forgot how exciting he can be to watch sometimes.
Barbie - What a joy to watch. The sets, the colors, the cheeky references (without being derogatory or demeaning) - all wonderful. Robbie is great. It feels weird to say this, but cast-wise Gosling was the MVP for me. He's given the most to work with, and fully commits to the shtick. But despite the muddy overall message, the realy winner is the screenplay (and I don't even like Greta Gerwig movies usually). It had just the right highs and lows. It is super smart, but still appeals to a mass audience.
Neither movie is going in the pantheon of great movies for me. But gosh, it was nice to see two smart carefully crafted films do well this weekend.
It was soo refreshing to feel frenetic energy at the movies again... It has been a LONG time since I felt that! Oh, how I've missed it. 🥲
The film industry has severely fallen in the past five years or so especially, and it's painful to watch previews before a movie these days. I turned to my friend during some comic book trailer and I was like "superhero movies were fun...when everything wasn't superhero movies." She totally agreed. It's exhausting.
All that to say, I hope Barbenheimer reminds the industry that people are hungry for other shit. I hope this revives the industry and injects a little more creativity back into the art form, rather than the head honchos always chasing profit profit profit.
--
Anywho, I'm not that interested in Oppenheimer (Nolan bores me to tears tbh), but I could potentially see it. Talk to Me comes out next week, which I'm super excited for!! This energy for the movies has been dormant in me for so long at this point that I feel very excited.
Yay! 🤩
Avoided both Barbie & Oppenheimer. I avoid opening weekends because the theaters are too packed (which is a great thing), but a prefer a lesser crowd on the 2nd or 3rd week.
For some reason I decided to watch the 1999 Meryl Streep suds fest ‘Music of the Heart.’ Have to say that I found her ridiculous in the movie. I couldn’t buy Meryl as a ‘newly single Woman’ and her Farrah Fawcett curls were quite distracting. (The ‘personal ads’ subplot does not happen in a Streep world). I couldn’t even figure out what area her accent was supposed to be from. You know there’s something wrong with a movie when you’re trying to figure out who would’ve been a better replacement. I settled on Holly Hunter (fresh after mastering The Piano & more believable for personal ads), though Susan Sarandon could’ve worked or Hilary Swank further down the road after Boys Don’t Cry.
-The only positive quality that I liked was seeing a time capsule movie of a dedicated teacher who passionately wants to teach violin playing to inner-city grade school kids. Seems that if this film had a modernized update, audiences would have to endure a noble savior/teacher who wants to passionately instruct inner-city grade school kids on CRT mandates, gender questioning, DEI foundations, LTBQ principles or graphic, X-rated picture books. Music of the Heart mentions budget slashing of art & music classes, but it seems there’s plenty of money for whatever is being taught now.
-The end credits have the Dianne Warren forgettable title song sung by Gloria Estefan & NYSNC. She might have 20 nominations, but the song by Aerosmith is probably the only song I can hum one line to.
-Horror king Wes Craven directed this film. You’d think that he would’ve made the ‘inner city’ a bit more terrifying to make us think that Meryl is out of her mind for moving there? Not one kid in this school had their $$$ violin stolen or smashed?
-Somebody obviously got robbed of a Best Actress nomination because it’s Meryl sleepwalking through this part. Thought about Reese Witherspoon/Election, but the Academy doesn’t go for indie teen comedies (only Juno). I know that Miramax financed this & probably hustled Meryl for a nod. My DVD case has NBC-TV paid to say that this is ‘the best movie of the year!’ Ugh.
* The thing that made me lose sleep-Cloris Leachman played Meryl’s ma in this film. Meryl was handed her first Oscar my Leachman. What other movies had future random pairings of an Oscar giver & Oscar recipient-people who never worked together prior to their encounter on the podium? Consecutive Leads seemed to easy to figure out because they’re both ‘hotter’ after a win and more likely to get paired.
I saw a matinee of Oppenheimer on Saturday and a matinee of Barbie on Sunday. I was trilled to say several people in my Oppenheimer showing wearing pink! Both were superb, though I rate Oppenheimer just slightly higher.
While 1979's Chapter Two is no big deal, watching it this week means I've now seen all 1970s best actresses nominations.
Can't wait to see Barbie again. Though flawed, it is by far my favorite film of the year and Ms. Robbie deserves an Oscar nomination.
I saw Barbie this weekend, and I'll see Oppenheimer in theaters soon as well.
What I loved about the Barbie experience was the camaraderie of it. People dressed up like crazy, and I haven't been in an audience that delighted to be at a movie in years and years. The person taking tickets would address anyone in pastels with "Hi, Barbie," and audience-members greeted each other the same way, before and after. It was all a delight.
I would love a back-to-back performance at the 2024 ceremony of "Peaches" from Super Mario Bros. and "I'm Just Ken" from this one.
Watched JOY RIDE on Sunday which was funny, but not as non-stop hilarious as I had hoped. The cast was all excellent though! Finally saw SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE last night which was good but didn’t live up to the hype for me and dragged a bit.