Barbie & Oppenheimer Week 1 Box Office Breaks Massive Record: “Like A No-Hitter In Baseball”-TGN

Summary

• Barbie and Oppenheimer’s simultaneous release drove an organic viral marketing campaign, resulting in unforeseen heights of audience awareness.

• Both movies were successful individually, boasting A-list directors and ensemble casts, high Rotten Tomatoes ratings, and distinct tones and color palettes.

• The $500 million domestic week at the box office achieved by Barbenheimer is a rare accomplishment, happening only four times before and never before in July.

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Barbie and Oppenheimer, known collectively as Barbenheimer, have pulled off a huge accomplishment during their first week at the box office. Barbie, which was directed by Greta Gerwig and stars Margot Robbie as the iconic titular doll, grossed a whopping opening weekend total of $162 million at the domestic box office. Oppenheimer, which was directed by Christopher Nolan and stars Cillian Murphy as the real-life physicist and father of the atomic bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer, also pulled off a phenomenal feat with an $82.4 million domestic opening.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, thanks to the Barbenheimer box office, the total domestic gross for the week of July 21 through July 27 reached $500 million. Paul Dergarabedian, the chief box office analyst for Comscore, compared this to “a no-hitter in baseball.” This kind of weekly gross has happened “only four times prior in box office history” and never before in July. Read Dergarabedian’s full quote below:

Why Did Barbie and Oppenheimer Perform So Well at the Box Office?

Barbie and Oppenheimer probably would have both been successful if they had been released separately. Despite being almost diametrically opposed in tone and color palette, both boast Oscar-nominated directors leading huge ensemble casts full of A-listers. Both titles are also Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, with Barbie earning 89 percent and Oppenheimer standing even stronger at 94 percent.

Related: Oppenheimer’s Rotten Tomatoes Bucks A 21-Year-Old Nolan Trend, Is Secretly Even Better Than It Looks

However, the fact that both movies were released on the same weekend drove an organic viral marketing campaign, surpassing even the wide viral appeal of M3GAN earlier this year. During an uneven few years of box office recovery after theaters were shut down at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become unusual for two big blockbusters to premiere on the same weekend. That fact, as well as the fact that the movies were seemingly opposites, drove many mashup memes proclaiming the arrival of Barbenheimer weekend.

These memes drove audience awareness of the release date of Barbie and Oppenheimer to unforeseen heights. They also encouraged many people to participate in double features of the two movies rather than picking one and waiting until the following weekend to see the other. Thus, both movies bolstered the success of the other in a way that proved incredibly profitable.

Source: THR