Barbie v. Oppenheimer: Who wins at the box office?

[Kodos]

Poll to come.

[Ghost Econ]

Barbie and it won't be close.

[Kodos]

I think Barbie will have the bigger opening weekend, but maybe Oppenheimer will have better legs. Going to vote for Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer is hampered a bit by its 3-hour runtime.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by Ghost Econ

Barbie and it won't be close.

This. It has an audience from old to teen-ager. My daughter last saw a movie in a theatre pre-covid and she was at opening night for Barbie.

[Edward64]

I voted for Barbie but want to change after reading the below

Only one of these summer blockbusters, however, boasts a number of sex scenes, and it isn’t the one starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

[Brian Swartz]

I voted for Oppenheimer, but probably shouldn't have based on what the question actually is. I want Oppenheimer to do better, but I think it's unlikely that it will.

[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by Kodos

I think Barbie will have the bigger opening weekend, but maybe Oppenheimer will have better legs.

This was my initial thought but then I figured: what movie has legs these days? Mission Impossible is probably the biggest movie of the year and it won't be in theaters anymore come mid-August, right?

I voted Barbie. I'm sure Oppenheimer is going to be a fantastic movie, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it'll be a commercial bomb because people aren't interested in subject matter that serious anymore.

[molson]

Barbie will win, but was also about 50% more expensive to make.

I think both will be successful relative to their budgets, which were both pretty reasonable. I think we're in the middle of a lot of big changes in the entertainment industry, one of them being more reluctance to produce massive budget movies which inevitably flop (Indiana Jones needed somewhere around $600-$700 million to break even and will make about half that). Which, after Solo bombing, is also why we've seen the delay or scrapping of planned Star Wars movies. Oppenheimer's budget is only 1/3 of Indiana Jones, and Barbie 1/2, and there's a ton of good word of mouth about both. Those are the kinds of movies that Hollywood needs.

[JPhillips]

Things looking good for Barbie.

Overseas, #Barbie ready to crush projections after FANTASTIC 41.4M 2-day cume over 51 markets as of THU.
Allied to huge 22.3M US preview, #BarbieMovie hits 63.7M globally before FRI starts.
Opening could be as high as
170M+ US
150M+ overseas
320M+ Global Opening at #BoxOffice! pic.twitter.com/r6kIUopOLl

— Luiz Fernando (@Luiz_Fernando_J) July 21, 2023

[Lathum]

Barbie- appeals to a far broader audience and Oppenheimer is 3 hours long.

[cartman]

Gonna see Oppenheimer at a 70mm IMAX on Sunday

[thesloppy]

I at least understand what Barbie is. Oppenheimer is a hisorical biopic that is being marketed as some sort of spectacle, which is hard for me to believe.

[RainMaker]

Barbie. Broader audience, shorter runtime, and PG-13.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I agree that Barbie appeals to a considerably broader audience ... which is one hell of a depressing thought to ponder

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I agree that Barbie appeals to a considerably broader audience ... which is one hell of a depressing thought to ponder

Really? It is a toy movie. That means that is going to appeal to ages 0 and up. I don't think many parents with young children are going to see "Oppenheimer."

As for me, I am not going to the theater to see either. I may watch Oppenheimer some day on streaming.

[RainMaker]

I'm going to see Oppenheimer but those 2 and a half hour movies are a tough watch sometimes in a theater. Debating whether I want to go the IMAX route. It's incredible but I've never seen a movie that long on IMAX before.

[GrantDawg]

I have never been impressed by IMAX. I have never understood the draw in anyway.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Really? It is a toy movie. That means that is going to appeal to ages 0 and up. .

Yeeeeah, the plot doesn't really scream 0 and up. Add about 10 years to that and you're in a more realistic ballpark.

[GrantDawg]

Under 10, all they care about is Barbie and Ken.

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[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I have never been impressed by IMAX. I have never understood the draw in anyway.

It's pretty cool for a space or nature doc that's like 60 minutes long. I just have a feeling that 2 and a half hours in IMAX will be headache-inducing.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

I'm going to see Oppenheimer but those 2 and a half hour movies are a tough watch sometimes in a theater. Debating whether I want to go the IMAX route. It's incredible but I've never seen a movie that long on IMAX before.

We did the new avatar. It was amazing. Not sure if opp would be the same level of immersion.

[Critch]

It's got to be said that the Barbie trailer looks fun.

[GrantDawg]

I did Gravity. I liked the movie, but I felt like I would have enjoyed it on a smaller screen just as much.

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[molson]

There's only about a dozen "true" 70mm Imax theaters in the U.S., the rest are digital and compressed. They may still be the best and/or biggest screen in a particular area, but, Imax is not a uniform thing.

[molson]

Barbie wins as expected, but, both exceeded projections. Barbie had the biggest opening weekend of the year (also biggest opening weekend ever for a female director), Oppenheimer had the biggest opening weekend for an R-rated movie since COVID. Overall biggest box office weekend since COVID, and fourth biggest combined box office weekend ever behind Endgame/Infinity War/Force Awakens openings. (Obviously inflation helps with all that, but, still big wins all around).

[CrimsonFox]

hottake...barbie will also beat oppen at the oscars for best picture

[CrimsonFox]

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

hottake...barbie will also beat oppen at the oscars for best picture

I'll take that action.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by cartman

Gonna see Oppenheimer at a 70mm IMAX on Sunday

Well boo. The IMAX projector broke like 5 minutes unto the showing.

[Edward64]

I think the picture set is a great idea (I saw a another pic without the "plastic").



So are we ready to call it for Barbie & Ken?

[cartman]

Originally Posted by cartman

Well boo. The IMAX projector broke like 5 minutes unto the showing.

Going to try again this weekend for a 70mm IMAX showing of Oppenheimer. Originally today was going to be the end of the run, but they've added more showings.

[albionmoonlight]

Saw them both.

Really liked them both.

Liked Oppenheimer better, but it really was two great movies.

I also like that two good new original movies are dominating while the "Let's just throw another Mission Impossible film at them b/c who cares" strategy is not.

[RainMaker]

Oppenheimer gives me hope we'll see more movies like it in the future. Napoleon and Killers of the Flower Moon are next up on my must-watch at the theaters.

[GrantDawg]

Both are movies I am very excited about. Especially Napoleon.

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[Mota]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

Saw them both.

Really liked them both.

Liked Oppenheimer better, but it really was two great movies.

I also like that two good new original movies are dominating while the "Let's just throw another Mission Impossible film at them b/c who cares" strategy is not.

Yeah, we also seem to be at the late-stage of the superhero flick as well. Blue Beetle? We're really getting to the D-listers now.

I saw Talk To Me and it was very good as well. Nice to see some new non-franchise horror flicks do well. Smile also was a good one last year.

[molson]

We did the same-day Barbenheimer, that was pretty fun.

[Izulde]

It's been a while since we've seen a movie become this much a part of the cultural zeitgeist, and it's fascinating to watch

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

Saw them both.

Really liked them both.

Liked Oppenheimer better, but it really was two great movies.

I also like that two good new original movies are dominating while the "Let's just throw another Mission Impossible film at them b/c who cares" strategy is not.

I don't think that's the right way to describe Mission Impossible. It's hardly the example of a lazy blockbuster or a random Marvel property. Cruise puts tons of effort into those movies. Audiences and critics both loved it. Marketing and release timing just weren't handled right.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

Cruise puts tons of effort into those movies. Audiences and critics both loved it.

I ain't a movie guy, nor a Tom Cruise guy, but this feels fair to me. I've never heard anyone really criticize those movies as being lazy or even particularly "by rote" or something. They know their lane and they drive in it pretty well best I can figure.

[Brian Swartz]

I definitely think they are repetitive and have stopped watching them. I'm not your average movie person at all, but they suffered from the same problem IMO that franchises like Fast and Furious have; needing to up the ante to something more and more ridiculous with each installment. After Ghost Protocol I was like 'nope, sorry, not suspending my disbelief that far'.

It's got nothing to do with Cruise's effort or any such thing, it's just when you paint yourself into a box and each mission has to be more 'impossible' than the last one, it gets ridiculous pretty quickly. '24' had the same problem.

[GrantDawg]

I was like that after the first MI.

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[larrymcg421]

I mean, that's fine if you personally didn't like the movie. My point was that Mission Impossible 7 was not some soulless blockbuster they just blindly threw out there, which is what the comment suggested.

Its failure wasn't because of audience reaction. Both critics and audiences rated it over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and it got an A Cinemascore.

[albionmoonlight]

A fair point. I had not seen the movie, so it really wasn’t cool of me to use it as an example of bad filmmaking. Point taken.

[cartman]

Saw Oppenheimer at one of the few 70mm IMAX places this morning. Holy crap what an amazing movie experience.