“We Have No Chance”: Talk To Me Directors Get Realistic About Opening Against Barbie & Oppenheimer-TGN

Summary

• Talk to Me’s directors acknowledge their film’s place in the box office universe as they compete against Barbie and Oppenheimer.

• Talk to Me grossed $10.4 million in its opening weekend, proving low-budget horror movies are profitable.

• Although it didn’t make a dent in the Barbenheimer phenomenon, Talk to Me is a financial success and is likely to gain buzz as word of mouth spreads.

The directors of A24’s acclaimed movie Talk to Me get candid about their chance to compete against Barbie and Oppenheimer. A hit at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, Australian horror film Talk to Me was later picked up for distribution by A24, the production house responsible for indie favorites like The Witch, Hereditary and Everything Everywhere All At Once. Already a smash among critics, as evidenced by its 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the Talk to Me release date arrived last week, as the film was plunged into the deep end of the box office pool against twin behemoths Barbie and Oppenheimer.Competing against the pop culture juggernaut that is Barbenheimer is of course an exercise in futility, and the directors of Talk to Me are refreshingly aware of their movie’s place in the box office universe, as they conveyed during a recent interview with Letterboxd. Responding to a review suggesting that fans turn their Barbenheimer experience into a triple feature including Talk to Me, Danny and Michael Philippou had jokes about the absurdity of forcing themselves into the conversation around the summer’s two biggest films, while admitting they really can’t compete. Check out what they had to say in the space below (around 1:32 of the clip):

Talk To Me Is Not Really Competing Against Barbenheimer

Released in North America on July 27, Talk to Me grossed $10.4 million in its opening weekend, good enough to finish in sixth place and second among the weekend’s new releases. That number was of course far behind the $93 million grossed by the weekend’s winner Barbie, and quite distant from the $46 million taken by the number two film Oppenheimer.It may therefore look like Talk to Me was stomped by the Barbenheimer phenomenon, but the film is actually a huge financial success. Grossing more than its $4.5 million budget in just its first weekend, Talk to Me again proves that low-budget horror movies are, in terms of profit margins, the surest box office bets around. The film’s A24 branding is also significant, as audiences are by now aware of the company’s reputation for releasing quality horror films.There is indeed a real sense in which Talk to Me was a huge winner at the box office last weekend, and not a loser. Of course the film was never going to make a dent in the Barbenheimer phenomenon, but it was never actually in competition against those movies to begin with. Fans who like good horror will seek out films like Talk to Me, regardless of what big movies may also be drawing crowds at the multiplex. It will indeed be fascinating to see how the Australian horror film performs in coming weeks, as Barbenheimer dies down, and word-of-mouth buzz grows over A24’s latest acclaimed fright-fest.Source: Letterboxd