Barbie or Oppenheimer, who won the Barbenheimer box office weekend?

We all just lived through the greatest double feature in the history of cinema marked by the simultaneous releases of Greta Gerwig's Barbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer. And it seems with the exception of a few dudebros whose fragile egos were bruised, everyone enjoyed the best of both worlds. But who’s winning?

The Barbenheimer weekend has proven to be a massive success for the global box office, delivering some of the best numbers seen since the pandemic. The combination of these two highly anticipated films provided a much-needed boost to movie-going and box office revenues, which have been struggling to recover fully from the impact of the pandemic.

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According to Comscore, this weekend's revenue ranks as the fourth-biggest of all time and the largest since the record-breaking Avengers: Endgame. The combined ticket sales amounted to a staggering $305 million, a rare feat that showcases the immense popularity and appeal of both Barbie and Oppenheimer.

Greta Gerwig's meta-comedy took the lead in the box office race, making history by earning an astounding $155 million domestically. This figure is typically reserved for male-led superhero movies or major intellectual properties like the final Harry Potter installment. 

The film surpassed initial expectations of $90 million to $110 million, fuelling the success of the entire weekend. Barbie's triumph was not confined to North America, as it also garnered an impressive $182 million from 70 international markets, resulting in a global opening of $337 million against a production budget of $145 million.

READ OUR REVIEW | Barbie Movie Review: C'mon Barbie, let's do anxiety

Apart from its impressive box office earnings, Barbie set several records, including having the top opening of 2023 so far, surpassing other highly anticipated titles like The Super Mario Bros Movie, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and more.

While Barbie dazzled at the box office, Nolan's Oppenheimer also made a comsiderable impact. The R-rated historical drama, focusing on J Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb, exceeded expectations with an $80.5 million domestic debut in the US.

This marks Nolan's third-biggest opening domestically, only behind The Dark Knight Rises and The Dark Knight. The film's global launch amounted to $174.2 million across 78 markets, showcasing its international appeal.

READ OUR REVIEW: Oppenheimer Review: Man creates bomb. Bomb kills people. Man goes WTF. Nolan makes billions.

The positive reception and high box office earnings come as a welcome relief for the film industry amid ongoing concerns about the writers and actors' strike, which has put Hollywood on edge.

What’s the verdict in India?

The film’s have witnessed unprecedented success at the Indian box office, with both garnering significant attention and ticket sales.

Despite the global dominance of Barbie, Oppenheimer managed to capture a larger share of the opening weekend sales in India with a total weekend gross of Rs 50 crore over Barbie's Rs 21 crore.

According to BookMyShow, Nolan's film sold an impressive 3,60,000 tickets in advance, surpassing Barbie's 91,000 pre-booked tickets.

• PVR anticipated Oppenheimer to perform strongly, projecting box office earnings of Rs 7 crore to Rs 8 crore for its opening weekend, while Barbie was expected to trail with Rs 4 crore to Rs 5 crore.

ALSO SEE: Who Was Paid How Much Money For Oppenheimer?

The success of Oppenheimer in India was particularly driven by its English version, as it was not released in Tamil and Telugu languages, and the Hindi version accounted for only 10% of its business. The film performed remarkably well in major markets across the country, with significant collections coming from the South. 

On the other hand, Barbie faced some challenges in India, resulting in relatively lower box office numbers. The film earned around Rs 4.25 crore to Rs 4.50 crore net on its opening day. 

Barbie was released in only 850 screens, in stark contrast to Oppenheimer's 1,900 screens. Despite the genre differences, both Hollywood flicks together collected a commendable total of Rs 17 crore net in a single day.

Though its overall box office collection was less than half of Oppenheimer's, Barbie's slashed screen count in India translates to a proportionately tremendous box office success in the country as well.

All in all, the Barbenheimer weekend's extraordinary performance demonstrates that audiences are eager to return to theatres for compelling and diverse cinematic experiences, showcasing the enduring power of film in bringing people together, even during challenging times.

It doesn’t matter what won in the end (even though we have a very clear and very pink winner). The Barbenheimer phenomenon was a win for cinema and a win for all of us who got to experience it first-hand.