The much-hyped “Barbenheimer” field workplace battle over the weekend proved to be a win for film theaters that wanted so as to add some sizzle to their summer time. Ticket gross sales for the movie trade’s greatest season had been disappointing via a lot of June and July. “The Flash” flopped, a brand new “Indiana Jones” journey underwhelmed, and Tom Cruise’s newest “Mission: Impossible” film opened wanting expectations. Hollywood is also grappling with strikes by writers and actors.

Enter “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” two polar reverse motion pictures that debuted concurrently in a matchup dubbed “Barbenheimer.” “Barbie” stars Margot Robbie in a brightly coloured comedy concerning the iconic doll, whereas “Oppenheimer” tells a haunting story concerning the making of the atomic bomb.

The two titles had cinemas buzzing over the weekend and full of “Barbie” followers wearing pink. Domestic ticket gross sales for all motion pictures topped $300 million within the United States and Canada for simply the fourth time in historical past. “Barbie” hauled in $155 million of that and “Oppenheimer collected $80.5 million, according to studio estimates on Sunday. “Everybody was in,” said Jeff Bock, senior box office analyst at Exhibitor Relations Co. “All demographics confirmed up for these two movies, and it is precisely what Hollywood wanted.”

Cinema going still lags pre-pandemic levels, prompting nagging questions about whether audiences have grown content to watch movies at home. Hopes were high going into the summer as COVID-clogged production pipelines cleared and studios scheduled 30% more films than last summer. But through mid-July, 2023 summer box office receipts were running about 7% below last year.

‘BARBIE’ SHINES Then, “Barbenheimer” became a cultural moment, sending crowds to AMC Entertainment, Cineplex and other cinema chains. More than 200,000 people purchased tickets to see “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” on the same day, according to the National Association of Theatre Owners.

Now, summer domestic ticket sales stand roughly 1% ahead of the same point in 2022, research firm Comscore said, while year-to-date totals are up 16% from 2022. Still, the $5.4 billion total so far this year ranks 19% behind the pre-pandemic times of 2019.

Over the weekend, “Barbie” set records as the biggest opening of 2023 and the highest of any movie directed by a woman in history. It eclipsed the April opening of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” “I’m tickled pink at this historic weekend,” gushed Jeff Goldstein, head of domestic theatrical distribution at Warner Bros, the studio that released “Barbie.” “People are having a good time. The dialog is so upbeat and so optimistic.”

Barbie maker Mattel Inc had launched an all-out global marketing blitz to stoke the frenzy, lighting London landmarks in pink and partnering on hundreds of products. “Barbie” took in $337 million worldwide. Not all of the “Barbie” buzz was positive. Some U.S. Republicans objected to a map in the movie that they said was pro-China, which prompted Vietnam to ban the film. Warner Bros said “Barbie” was not making a geopolitical statement.

“Oppenheimer,” from Comcast Corp’s Universal Pictures, took in $174 million globally, a strong start for a three-hour adult drama. The film stars Cillian Murphy as scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man who developed the atomic bomb that ended World War Two. “This appears like a (pre-COVID) weekend the place an enormous Marvel film or a Star Wars film or an enormous Disney film got here out, however this did not contain any of these issues,” said Box Office Pro senior analyst Shawn Robbins. “With the fitting content material on the market, individuals wish to go see it on the massive display screen.”

While Hollywood celebrated the bustling weekend, cinemas face a thinning slate ahead. The next big action movie on the schedule is November’s “Dune – Part 2.” Plus, the ongoing work stoppages could delay some upcoming titles, and the industry still faces the reality that many 2023 movie releases fell flat.

“Quite a lot of these blockbusters simply did not go over properly,” Bock said. “That’s an issue for Hollywood as a result of most of us anticipated the trade to blow away the summer time of 2022.”

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