“Barbenheimer” phenomenon is continuing to pack movie theaters and dominate the box office in their second weekend of release, providing another needed jolt as two Hollywood strikes threaten the fragile exhibition industry.
Greta Gerwig’s cotton candy-colored fantasy comedy again led the way, adding a massive $93 million between Friday and Sunday. Ticket sales for “Barbie” declined just 43% from its debut and resulted in the seventh-biggest second weekend in history.
The only movies that enjoyed bigger sophomore outings were billion-dollar behemoths “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($149 million), “Avengers: Endgame” ($147 million) and “Infinity War” ($114 million), “Black Panther” ($111 million), “Jurassic World” ($106 million), and “The Avengers” ($103 million).
Christopher Nolan’s dark historical drama also had a stellar sophomore outing, taking in a mighty $46.6 million over the weekend.
According to Universal, it became the first R-rated movie to gross more than $10 million for 10 days in a row.
After two weeks on the big screen, “Barbie” has generated $351.4 million in North America to stand as the fourth-biggest domestic release of the year. Globally, the Warner Bros. movie has grossed $774 million and ranks as the third-largest movie of 2023.
Meanwhile, “Oppenheimer” has earned $174 million at the domestic box office and $400 million at the global box office. It has already outperformed the lifetime grosses of two prior Nolan efforts, “Tenet” ($365 million), and “Batman Begins” ($373 million).
Two new movies, Disney’s remake of “Haunted Mansion” and A24’s violent thriller “Talk to Me,” attempted to entice audiences in the wake of “Barbenheimer,” to varied results.
“Haunted Mansion” debuted in third place with $24.6 million from 3,700 North American theaters. The movie added $9.1 million at the international box office, bringing its worldwide tally to $33 million. Disney spent $150 million to produce the movie and tens of millions on promotional efforts. So, the movie has a high bar to reach profitability, at least in its theatrical run.
It doesn’t bode well that audiences were mixed on “Haunted Mansion,” which has a “B+” CinemaScore.
Directed by Justin Simien and starring LaKeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson, Tiffany Haddish, and Owen Wilson, the movie takes inspiration from the Disney theme park ride and follows a single mother and her son, who move into… a haunted mansion.
The low-budget “Talk to Me” generated a healthy $10 million from 2,340 theaters across the U.S. Those ticket sales exceeded expectations and were enough to land in sixth place. It’s the second-biggest start in wide release ever for A24, following “Hereditary” with $13.6 million.
“Talk to Me” is the feature debut of Australian YouTube stars Danny and Michael Philippou. Reviews and word-of-mouth have been positive, which helped the movie to break out at the box office. It centers on a group of friends who discovers how to conjure spirits, which is all fun and games until one of them unleashes a horrifying supernatural force.
Elsewhere at the domestic box office, the independent juggernaut “Sound of Freedom” added $13.6 million from 3,411 theaters in its fifth weekend of release. The thriller about child sex trafficking has generated $150 million to date, making it the 12th-highest-grossing domestic release of the year.
Remarkably, “Sound of Freedom” has earned more money in North America than big-budget tentpoles like “Fast X” ($145 million), Pixar’s “Elemental” ($142 million), and Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” ($139 million).
“Mission: Impossible” took the No. 5 spot on domestic charts with $10.7 million from 3,191 venues in its third outing. Internationally, the movie has generated $309.4 million for a global total of $448 million.
Despite positive reviews, the $291 million-budgeted blockbuster has stumbled in the wake of “Barbenheimer” and will struggle to recover in its theatrical run. Overall, the month of July was ahead by 1.4% compared to pre-pandemic times, while the entire box office for the year remains down roughly 20%.
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