The box office battle of the year has finally begun. For months, hype has been building for Barbenheimer, with the collision of hot-pink plastic fantastic Barbie and the intensely serious atomic drama of Oppenheimer making for a bizarre match-up. Both movies are now in theaters, and the box office preview totals are in. So, which of these contenders has delivered the first blow?
To nobody’s surprise, Barbie has trounced Oppenheimer. Deadline is reporting that Barbie scored an estimated $20 million from its previews against $9 million for Oppenheimer. This shouldn’t be shock: Barbie clearly has a much wider appeal than Christopher Nolan’s three-hour meditation on nuclear paranoia and the morality of science. Plus, more straightforwardly, theaters can schedule more screenings of Barbie than Oppenheimer as it’s an hour shorter.
That said, Barbie is shaping up to be a sizeable hit. For example, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 scored $17.5 million on its Thursday night previews. That went on to gross $843.5 million in total, meaning Barbie has the potential to join the billion-dollar club after all.
All that said, Oppenheimer certainly isn’t going to flop. Right now it’s in the same ballpark as blockbusters like Doctor Strange, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Logan. The difference is that those are superhero movies leaning heavily on existing IP while Oppenheimer is a high-minded historical biopic, so we suspect Christopher Nolan will be very happy with those numbers.
The Barbenheimer battle may prove to be very one-sided, though right now it seems there’s room enough in the summer schedule for both upbeat girly goodness and the sobering prospect of nuclear annihilation. Now, let’s see how opening weekend goes.
Barbie and Oppenheimer are now in theaters.
