Hello everyone,
“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” both soared past their expected grosses. This weekend was the first time ever where 2 different movies beat their box office predictions (usually one movie does well and the 2nd new movie doesn’t). “Barbie” made an incredible $162 million domestically – which was over $50 million higher than predictions. “Oppenheimer” made approx. $82 million – beating it’s predictions by over $30 million. Lots of records broken this past weekend including the best single day for 2023 so far (“Barbie” made $70 million on Friday including Thursday night previews), best opening weekend of 2023 so far (“Barbie”), best opening weekend for a female director (“Barbie”), best opening weekend for an R rated movie (“Oppenheimer” beat “John Wick 4” which made $73 million earlier this year) and best opening weekend for a drama for the 2023 so far (“Oppenheimer”).
People are wondering how each movie would have done if they had opened without any competition. Some say “Barbie” could have reached $200 million without the “Oppenheimer” competition similar to the box office of “Spider Man No Way Home” which was the last movie to have a better opening weekend (it made $260 million in 2021 thanks to hardly any competition).
Unfortunately, “Mission Impossible” didn’t hold up against the new movies. It dropped down to 4th dropping 65% for its 2nd weekend to $19.3 million. “Sound of Freedom” is still doing pretty well but dropped 27% to #3 with $19.8 million. However, thanks to the two new movies, the total domestic box office was over $300 million. The 4th time that has EVER HAPPENED and the first time it has happened since the pandemic started (If “Spider-Man – No Way Home” had a little help it could have gotten over $300 million but no other movie made more than $6.5 million that weekend).
Movie theaters are happy about this past weekend but still concerned that the upcoming movie releases will be disappointing starting with this Fridays “Haunted Mansion” which is only predicted to make $30 million. Most people are sure that “Barbie” will do better than that and stay #1 next weekend and people are HOPING that “Oppenheimer” will also beat it and be #2 next weekend.
It seems like “Barbie” basically made double what “Oppenheimer” made. Even in the international box office where both movies also did very well. “Barbie” making $356 million worldwide – meaning it made almost $200 million in foreign countries – and “Oppenheimer” made $180 million (about half of what “Barbie” made) – making almost $100 million in foreign countries. Unfortunately, neither movie did well in China. “Barbie” was higher but only reached the #5 movie in the China box office this weekend.
Time will tell if “Barbie” will hold up to challenge “Super Mario Bros Movie” as the best worldwide box office on the year for 2023 (so far). Currently it’s #8 on the domestic 2023 list (needs to make over $400 million more to be #1) and #11 on the worldwide 2023 box office (needs to make almost $1 billion worldwide to reach #1).
More bad news for AMC. The CEO of the company said the chain could run out of cash after the court refused to let them convert preferred equity into common stock. He mentioned the uncertainty of the box office for the rest of 2023 due to the current strikes.
Also, over this past weekend something happened at the AMC Burbank theater and the entire building had to be evacuated. People on social media said they heard there was a fire but nothing official was said.
The current actor and writer strikes has led to the first movie being postponed. The film “Challengers” was supposed to premiere at the Venice Film Festival and then open in theaters later this year. They just announced that the movie is now coming out in April 2024.
There are a lot of other movies that people are speculating may be moved to 2024. If the strike goes on for a few more weeks, the movies currently scheduled for summer 2024 will not be released because they’re not done filming and they’re currently on hold due to the strikes. Some people think Warner Bros movies “Dune Part 2”, “Aquaman 2”, or “The Color Purple” will be pushed to 2024.
Little bit of humor….
If they did this in the US – some people would be in the toilet for the whole movie. Do you think if it’s a multiplex they can change channels to watch the movie they bought a ticket to see?
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 