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Barbenheimer Dominates Box Office for Second Weekend in a Row As Oppenheimer Nabs Extended IMAX Run
With Barbie and Oppenheimer both continuing to shine, we're living through box office history, folks!
"Barbenheimer" is truly here to stay, with one of the greatest double headers of the modern blockbuster era — Greta Gerwig's Barbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer — dominating the domestic and international box offices for the second weekend in a row.
"An incredible second weekend for 'Barbenheimer' is now on the books and solidifies the notion that the opening weekend success was not some sort of box office one-off never to be repeated, but rather an ongoing moviegoing craze that has captured the imagination of audiences around the world," Paul Dergarabedian, Senior Media Analyst at Comscore, tells SYFY WIRE. "Barbie and Oppenheimer enjoyed minuscule second weekend drops in the low 40% range, indicating fantastic word of mouth and a continuing wave of FOMO serving as inspiration for first-time ticket buyers, as well as some repeat viewing by those who could not get enough seat time in their local movie theater to see both of these films."
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Barbie and Oppenheimer Rule Box Office for Second Weekend
Barbie once again nabbed the top domestic spot with a massive $93 million, boosting its North American haul to over $351 million. Per Variety, this is the seventh-largest sophomore weekend for a major studio tentpole after Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($149 million), Avengers: Endgame ($147 million), Avengers: Infinity War ($114 million), Black Panther ($111 million), Jurassic World ($106 million), and The Avengers ($103 million).
The eye-popping adventure (based on the world-famous doll brand and fronted by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling) also took the No. 1 spot internationally with an additional $122.2 million for a current overseas tally of $423.1 million.
Combined with domestic numbers, Barbie's worldwide ticket sales have officially surpassed $770 million, making it the third highest-grossing movie of 2023 after The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($1.3 billion) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ($844 million). A final cache of $1 billion or more seems likely at this point.
Meanwhile, Oppenheimer nabbed $46.2 million domestically in its second frame, bringing the atomic bomb thriller's North American total to $174 million. Citing Universal Pictures, Variety reports that the 3-hour historical drama "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."
For some context, Oppenheimer is now the eighth-fastest R-rated flick to reach $100 million in North America over its first five days.
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"Like a chain reaction, the 5-day sprint to $100 million for Oppenheimer was the result of many elements that caused an incredible amount of box office energy to be released and is most impressive considering the rating, the run time, and, of course, the subject matter," Dergarabedian says. "Professors at CalTech, MIT, and other science and math-focused higher learning institutions must be rejoicing because an interest in science has likely taken a major turn upward due to the popularity of the film."
Internationally, the film reached $226.3 million this past weekend via an additional $72.4 million. With over $400 million globally, the movie is now the sixth-highest grossing entry in Nolan's repertoire, outstripping both Tenet ($365 million) and Batman Begins ($373 million).
According to Collider, Nolan's explosive World War II epic is performing so well in IMAX (after all, it was shot exclusively on the large-format cameras), that the company has announced an extended run through August 16-17, "with plans to bring-back IMAX showtimes of Oppenheimer in the late summer/fall, as availability permits."
Oppenheimer and Barbie are now playing in theaters everywhere. Click here to pick up tickets for both!
