Hello everyone,
Both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” had very good second weekends at the box office. On their second weekends, they made about what pre-release predictions said they would make on their opening weekend. “Barbie was #1 again with approx. $93 million for a total of about $350 million. “Oppenheimer” was #2 with approx. $46 million (again – almost exactly half what “Barbie” made) and now has a total of approx. $175 million. The major release this past weekend was “Haunted Mansion” which came in 3rd with $24 million.
Some people now saying that “Barbie” will soon become the #1 movie of 2023 (so far). It’s currently on the verge of being the #3 domestic movie of the year (it’s just $7 million behind “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3” right now – it’ll probably be #3 by the start of August. It’s only about $220 million behind the #1 “Super Mario Bros Movie” (which is at $574 million). However, there are two issues that could affect it. Right now, “Barbie” is at the same amount that “Super Mario Bros Movie” was at after it’s 2nd weekend – $350 million. The first issue is that “Barbie” went down approx. 42% on its second weekend, “Super Mario Bros Movie” only went down 37% on its second weekend and only 35% on its third weekend. The second issue is that “Meg 2:The Trench” opens this coming weekend. Since that’s also a Warner Bros release, “Barbie” will probably lose some screens to that movie when it opens on Friday. “Super Mario Bros” only lost about 20 screens on its 3rd weekend.
Overall, the total domestic box office for this past weekend was approx. $217 million which is a new record for the last weekend of July. It’s 122% better than a year ago and it’s 34% better than the pre-pandemic last weekend in July in 2019. However, it may be a long time until the box office has another record-breaking weekend this year due to the current strikes.
Worldwide, “Barbie” is also doing very well. It’s now the #3 movie of 2023 (so far) with $780 million worldwide. It will definitely pass $1 billion but – again – it may have trouble passing “Super Mario Bros Movie” which is currently at $1.35 BILLION because of “Meg 2: The Trench” opening this weekend and because the “Barbie” international box office is farther behind “Super Mario Bros Movie”. “Barbie” is only $220 million behind domestically but it’s $570 million behind worldwide because internationally it’s about $350 million behind ($429 million vs $777 million). It’s $130 million behind “Fast X” on the international box office chart because that movie did a lot better than it did domestically. Worldwide box office for “Fast X” is about 80% from international countries.
Meanwhile, the worldwide total for “Oppenheimer” is now at $405 million which makes it the 2nd biggest worldwide box office for a Christopher Nolan movie (only behind “The Dark Knight”).
MOST of the world is crazy for “Barbenheimer” EXCEPT for Japan. Warner Bros Japan criticized the domestic Barbie Twitter account for posting “extremely regrettable” “Barbenheimer” images that include a mushroom cloud. They say it “trivializes nuclear weapons and the devastating fallout of the bomb on the country and citizens of Japan”. There is a “NoBarbenheimer” hashtag trending in Japan. Of course, “Oppenheimer” doesn’t have a release date for Japan – and it might never open in that country. It’s not scheduled to open in South Korea until August 18 and not scheduled to open in China until the end of August. Also, “Barbie” isn’t scheduled for release in Japan until mid-August
Looks like Sony is the first studio to shuffle their 2023 schedule due to the strikes. It’s too late to postpone their 3rd quarter movies but they did slightly adjust the release of “Grand Turismo”. Their entire 4th quarter is now postponed until 2024. They also announced some new released dates for movies in summer 2024.
- “Grand Turismo” – WAS going to open wide on 8/11, now it’s going to have “sneak preview” showings on that date and then open wide on Aug 25
- “The Equalizer 3” – Unchanged release date of 9/1
- “Dumb Money” – Unchanged release date of 9/22
- “Kraven the Hunter” – moves from Oct 6, 2023 to Aug 30, 2024.
- “Ghostbusters Afterlife 2” – moves from Dec 20, 2023 to March 29, 2024
- “Spiderman Beyond the Spiderverse” (the 3rd movie in the animated franchise) gets bumped by “Ghostbusters Afterlife 2” and doesn’t have a new release date yet
- “Madames Web” moves UP 2 days from Fri Feb 16 to Wed Feb 14, 2024.
- Announced release date: “Bad Boys 4” – scheduled for release on June 14, 2024
- Announced release date: “Venom 3” – scheduled for release on July 12, 2024
- “Karate Kid reboot” gets bumped from June 7, 2024 to Dec 13, 2024
- ‘They Listen” is bumped from August 30, 2024 and doesn’t have a new release date yet
(“Napoleon” – an Apple production that Sony is releasing theatrically – is now changing it’s release date).
Apparently, the filmmakers of “Oppenheimer” chose to censor the nudity in the movie for some countries, but they kept the scenes in the movie by digitally adding a black dress. My question is if they’re OK censoring it for some countries, why not censor it for EVERYWHERE. It may have gotten a PG-13 in the US without the nudity. I bet it could have made a lot more money from the “Barbenheimer” stuff if the movie was rated PG-13.
Little bit of humor…..
Awww man! The punches in “Rocky IV” weren’t real???? You got to be kidding me!!!!!
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 