'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer' Surpass Projections With Impressive Box Office Debuts

Barbenheimer, the collective name of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, surpassed expectations with their box office debuts.

According to reports, Barbie set the record for the biggest debut of 2023 so far with $155 million USD, while Oppenheimer overcame its projected start of $50 million USD with a $80.5 million USD debut. At the global box office, Barbie added another $182 million USD for a total of $337 million USD while Oppenheimer’s total went up to $174 million USD thanks to its additional $93.7 million USD.

In addition to posting the biggest debut of the year, Barbie also broke the record for the biggest opening weekend by a woman-directed film, overtaking the record previously set by Captain Marvel co-director Anna Boden.

Variety adds that “Hundreds of thousands” viewers bought back-to-back tickets to Barbenheimer. “This is an unequivocally great weekend for moviegoing,” said David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ are complementing each other at the box office, not taking audience from each other.”

Barbenheimer holds the record as the fourth-biggest overall weekend in history, following Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Elsewhere in entertainment, Dune: Part Two could be delayed.