Margot Robbie as Barbie and Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer Photo: Warner Bros Pictures/Universal Pictures top singles charts, only this time on a truly global scale – bringing success to both sides. Greta Gerwig's Barbie won the day with a $356 million global gross for Warner Bros, beating out $180 million for Christopher Nolan's competing Oppenheimer new release.
While Universal's Oppenheimer didn't draw much more than half the number of Barbies, it's still a powerful result of what is primarily a conversational drama about the difficult topic of building the world's first nuclear bomb. In Nolan's pantheon, the opening number lags behind the Batman films The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, but outperforms spectacular and sci-fi blockbusters like Inception and Interstellar.
As for Barbie, the $356 million debut represents a very powerful opening for a “non-franchise” film, meaning a film that isn't a sequel, prequel, or reboot. However, Barbie is not considered original intellectual property (IP) as the movie is based on the worldwide popular Mattel doll.
The impressive box office success came after the long journey of making a Barbie movie, starting with Mattel signing with Universal Pictures in 2009. In 2014, a second attempt was made, this time with Sony. Amy Schumer and Anne Hathaway were considered for the lead roles on various stages. Finally, the Barbie film was assembled at Warner Bros with Margot Robbie as star and producer, Gerwig directing and Gerwig writing with her film director Noah Baumbach. The creative result is a smart yet accessible film that is certainly the first studio blockbuster to mention both “patriarchy” and French writer Marcel Proust.
While Universal took a risk by sticking to Oppenheimer's July 21 release date, even as it became apparent that Barbie was poised to become a stronger competitor, the emergence of the “Barbenheimer” hashtag helped draw attention to the film, which was not an automatic blockbuster. Cillian Murphy plays J. Robert Oppenheimer, backed by a strong ensemble cast that also includes Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh. The three-hour running time can be seen as a challenge – reducing the number of sessions that can be displayed on screen each day.
Worthy rivals: Oppenheimer and Barbie at the box office Photo: Valerie Macon
In the UK and Ireland, Barbie tops the box office with £18.5m, ahead of Oppenheimer at £10.9m. Excluding preview fees, Barbie has the 10th biggest opening of all time in cinemas in the UK and Ireland, trailing only a string of sequels in the Marvel, James Bond and Harry Potter universes, as well as live-streaming of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. – action remake.
Oppenheimer is considered the biggest opening in the UK and Ireland for a Nolan film outside of his The Dark Knight series, surpassing his previous best debut in a non-Batman film, Dunkirk (£10.1m).
The Barbenheimer combo plus In addition, the second weekend for Mission: Impossible – Death Wage Part One and other released titles, including Disney/Pixar's Elemental, delivered a very solid market revenue of £35.80 to UK cinemas. million pounds sterling. The weekend's total almost equaled the current UK and Irish record set on the last weekend of April 2019 when the premiere of Avengers: Endgame helped push the total to £36.1m (excluding previews).< /p>
Oppenheimer, budgeted at £10.9 million, was the biggest film ever to open, coming in second at the UK and Ireland box office. The Transformers previously competed with The Simpsons Movie in July 2007, starting at £8.7 million including previews (vs The Simpsons Movie £13.6 million including previews). These figures are not adjusted for inflation. The two major Hollywood studio films rarely open against each other. The different audience warp for Barbie and Oppenheimer meant that Warner Bros and Universal continued to clash, despite the similarities in that they were both respected, Oscar-nominated directors.
Disappointingly, there are few opportunities for female directors to still direct major Hollywood blockbusters, which means Gerwig now tops the list of box office achievements for her gender. Barbie was the biggest opening for a film directed by a woman, both globally and in the UK/Ireland. In the latest market, Fifty Shades of Gray (directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson) debuted at £13.55 million.
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