It’s a Barbenheimer world this morning!
Hollywood is celebrating as the double release of two blockbusters on the same weekend paid off handsomely.
“Oppenheimer,” an Oscar worthy three hour epic, made $80 million.
“Barbie,” the best marketed movie in eons, raked in $155 million. The worldwide take is $337 million.
Each movie was original, not a sequel, and didn’t involve streaming. If it weren’t for two union strikes at the same time, this weekend would be declared a national holiday.
For “Barbie,” Warner Bros. can say it’s the biggest debut of a movie in 2023. It’s also the biggest one for a female director. “Barbie” can also claim to be the biggest movie based on a toy, like “Transformers.” In fact. the “Barbie” weekend take is the same as the latest “Transformers” made in 7 weeks!
For “Oppenheimer,” the success guarantees Oscar nominations– about a dozen of them. Director Christopher Nolan has his biggest non-“Batman” moment. Robert Downey Jr. overcomes his “Iron Man” legacy — even though it made him very rich — and returns to being a serious actor.
Meantime, “Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning” finished fourth with $19.5 million. This movie suffered from poor timing. Tom Cruise knew that and tried to get release dates moved around. But “MI” should have opened a week earlier instead of challenging this pair of hits. Lesson learned the hard way.
The number 3 movie is “Sound of Freedom,” which is living on a free ticket distribution and must have an asterisk next to its box office report.
