Barbie scores $94m at US box office on opening day, ahead of Oppenheimer’s $44m
LOS ANGELES – The bombshell has overtaken the bomb.
Barbie and Oppenheimer are both on track for strong opening weekends in the United States, with the former far outpacing the latter at the box office.
According to a report by trade publication Variety, comedy film Barbie – starring Margot Robbie as the titular blonde toy doll and directed by Greta Gerwig – grossed a total of US$70.5 million (S$93.8 million) from previews and opening day last Thursday and Friday respectively in the US.
This is the largest opening day in 2023 for a film in the country, easily eclipsing the US$51.8 million earned by Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse in June.
Meanwhile, film-maker Christopher Nolan’s period biopic Oppenheimer – about American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy), the father of the atomic bomb – scored US$33 million on its opening day in the US, with US$10.5 million of that figure sweeping in from Thursday’s previews.
According to The New York Times, box-office analysts say that Barbie could potentially earn US$100 million through Sunday in domestic sales, with Oppenheimer bringing in half that amount.
However, “Barbenheimer” fever seems to have skipped China.
Barbie, which was released there on Friday, earned only 6.9 million yuan (S$1.3 million), landing at sixth place behind domestic releases.
Meanwhile, Chinese regulators have yet to assign a release date for Oppenheimer since gaining approval by the country’s notoriously strict censors.
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