Inside the Box: Barbenheimer Breaks the Weekend Box Office

The highly anticipated Barbenheimer (Barbie + Oppenheimer) clash had people flocking to the theaters dressed in all shades of pink and black. 

Ashish Saksena, COO - Cinemas, BookMyShow, said, “With Oppenheimer and Barbie finally releasing across screens nationwide, it’s been a clash of the titans at the box office with both films exhibiting sheer cinematic brilliance and fans flocking to theaters for the big screen extravaganza.”

According to reports by Vanity Fair, Barbenheimer has shattered box-office records with a total earning of $511 million worldwide and $235.5 million in the North American market (we would convert these numbers but the number of zeros are intimidating). Greta Gerwig's Barbie (2023) surpassed expectations, bringing in $155 million in the States and $182 million internationally. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (2023), earned $80.5 million in the US market and $93.7 million internationally. Barbie did better numbers compared to Oppenheimer in over 70 international territories, according to multiple reports. Gerwig's film also had the largest opening this year, and the largest ever for a female director.

The story in the domestic market is different according to the numbers presented by Bollywood Hungama. Barbie made approximately ₹7 crore on Sunday in the Indian market. It started with ₹5 crore on Friday and earned ₹6.5 crore on Saturday. Its three-day total now amounts to ₹18.50 crore. Oppenheimer on the other hand, has raked in ₹17.25 crore net in India over three days (according to early estimates). The film made ₹14.50 crore on its first day and ₹17.25 crore on its second day. As of now, Oppenheimer's total earnings stand at ₹49 crore. It is expected to cross ₹50 crore soon.

Saksena said, “With 1.4 million tickets booked for Oppenheimer on BookMyShow so far, there has been a strong platform contribution of 74% to the overall box office revenue collection for the film while over 500,000 tickets have been sold for Barbie with an equally mammoth contribution of 70% by BookMyShow to the overall box office revenue collection for India, both films are off to a skyrocketing start right off the bat.” 

The mega hype around Barbenheimer created a movie-going phenomenon that hasn’t been seen in the post-pandemic world. “Interestingly, both films have attracted a significant number of cinephiles booking tickets for both, despite their contrasting themes and a substantial portion of the audience has planned their watching schedule for both movies on the same day! The prospects for these two films seem very promising over the course of the next week, riding on massive hype as they are expected to draw hordes of audiences to theaters across different formats, providing the ultimate big-screen experience,” said Saksena.