Battle at the Box Office 7/31/23
Barbenheimer continued their domination of the box office over the weekend, with both movies holding strong and having huge second weekends.
Barbie remained in first place with an utterly massive $93 million second weekend, dropping only 43% from last weekend’s opening. It’s the seventh-highest second weekend of all time, topping The Super Mario Bros. Movie by just over $1 million and $10 million behind the second weekend of The Avengers. Barbie is tracking ahead of The Super Mario. Bros Movie currently, which if it stays strong, would put it on top for the year both domestically and possibly worldwide as well. Worldwide, Barbie currently has $774.4 million and a domestic total of $351.4 million. Domestically, it is the fourth biggest movie of the year and it is the third biggest movie worldwide behind Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Oppenheimer dropped only 44% from last weekend and took in another $46.2 million, bringing it to just over $174 million domestically and $400.3 million worldwide. If it remains at its current pace, it seems like it could become at least Christopher Nolan’s third-biggest movie of all time and if it gets close to the $1 billion mark, it could challenge The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. Oppenheimer is currently the 8th biggest movie domestically for the year and the 14th biggest worldwide.
Haunted Mansion was no challenge to Barbenheimer and posted a disappointing third-place opening with $24 million. Unadjusted for inflation, that is basically what the first Haunted Mansion movie starring Eddie Murphy made in 2003. The slightly good news is that Haunted Mansion didn’t have an absurdly inflated budget like a lot of other blockbusters this summer, so it’s not a catastrophic opening but it’s another disappointment for Disney. Worldwide, Haunted Mansion has $33 million.
Sound of Freedom dropped 35% from last weekend and took fourth place with another $12.8 million, bringing it to $149.3 million domestically. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One rounded out the top 5 with another $10.6 million, taking it to $139.1 million domestically and $446.8 million worldwide.
Talk to Me debuted outside the top 5 in sixth place with $10.4 million but it’s actually a strong debut for A24, the second best for the distributor behind Hereditary. Talk to Me also only had a budget of $4.5 million, so it’s already doubled that in one weekend. The movie has not really opened internationally yet.
Barbie remained on top of the Per Theater average as well this weekend, making $21,446 in each of the 4,337 theaters it was playing in.