‘Barbie’ Movie’s $155 Million Opening Weekend Is Year’s Biggest

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(Bloomberg) — Movies finally have something to celebrate.

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Barbie, a comedy about the iconic fashion doll, and Oppenheimer, a biopic of the inventor of the atomic bomb, pulled movie fans out in droves, helping this weekend’s box office revenue more than double from the year before to nearly $302 million.

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Warner Bros. Researcher comScore said Sunday that Barbie took the top spot in US and Canadian movie theaters, bringing in $155 million in ticket sales. It also gave it the highest debut of the year, surpassing the $146.4 million of Super Mario Bros. Movie. in April. The film debuted the same weekend as Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which grossed $80.5 million.

Over 200,000 moviegoers bought tickets to see both remakes on the same day at chains such as AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. and Cineworld Group Plc’s Regal, a phenomenon dubbed “Barbenheimer”. The concurrent releases energized theatergoers, helping movie theaters have their best opening weekend since Avengers: Endgame debuted in April 2019.

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Other notable artists 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 unexpected summer hit was bested by Paramount Pictures’ Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1, which fell to fourth place with $19.5 million.

The weekend was a bright spark in a tough summer for the movie industry, which has suffered disappointing results from big-budget blockbusters like The Flash, Indiana Jones and Dial of Destiny.

Read more: Cinemas say people are booking Barbenheimer’s double feature

Barbie, which is directed by Greta Gerwig and stars Margot Robbie in the title role, was expected to make between $140 million and $175 million in its domestic debut, according to industry tracker Boxoffice Pro. Expectations have risen sharply in recent weeks as the photo has enjoyed increased media attention. Warner Bros. said the film grossed an additional $182 million in international markets.

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The image pokes fun at the doll’s history while addressing criticisms about its unrealistic personality and physical nature. It follows the character as he breaks out of the perfect world created by Mattel Inc. To a world with real people affected by the doll.

Read more: Mattel’s risky bet on a feminist Barbie movie just might work

Barbie has been heavily promoted, even by Hollywood standards, including a life-size replica of the Dreamhouse in Malibu, California, and giant pink boxes in theaters where fans can have their pictures taken. Many moviegoers, including adults, wore pink or dressed as movie characters.

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

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“Ken’s marketing was funny,” he said.

The picture’s success 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.

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

Nolan has always put out his movies, like The Dark Knight and Inception, in the third weekend in July. He was a fierce advocate of movie theaters, and moved to Universal from Warner Bros. Pictures. After the latter he simultaneously released his movie Tenet on streaming in 2020.

(Updates with other numbers from Comscore)

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