“Barbenheimer” double features were only the beginning. Disappointed by sold-out shows, hundreds of thousands of Barbie fans turned to Robert Oppenheimer for comfort. The result: an extra $5 million at the “Oppenheimer” box office.
According to film-data research company The Quorum, 6 percent of the people who saw “Oppenheimer” in the U.S. this past weekend did so because tickets to “Barbie” were sold out. “Oppenheimer” drew $83 million domestically, so $4.98 million is attributed to “Barbie” leftovers. (“Oppenheimer” made $93.7 million at the foreign box office.)
“Barbie” hauled in $161 million domestically this weekend and $182 million foreign; read IndieWire box-office guru Tom Brueggemann’s Sunday story here.
The Quorum conducted the survey of “Oppenheimer” viewers on Sunday, asking moviegoers why they saw the Christopher Nolan film. “Bought ticket because ‘Barbie’ was sold out” was one of the options for respondents, The Quorum founder David Herrin told IndieWire.
“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” wildly outperformed expectations. On Saturday, AMC, the largest movie-theater chain in the U.S., had its busiest day since July 2019, the company said in a Monday morning press release. Through Sunday evening, more than 87,000 AMC Stubs members alone had booked tickets to see “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” on the same day, per AMC.
“Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” and “The Sound of Freedom” each brought in about another $20 million worldwide this weekend. It was AMC’s biggest weekend since COVID nearly took down the exhibition industry.
“What a fabulous weekend for moviegoers at AMC’s movie theatres in the U.S. and abroad,” AMC Chairman and CEO Adam Aron said. “AMC sends an enormous thank you and congratulations to Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, and the entire team at Warner Bros., and to Christopher Nolan and the team at Universal Pictures. They’ve demonstrated that well-made, well-marketed films that captivate audiences can open on the same weekend and both enjoy great success.”
You know what wasn’t great for AMC over the “Barbenheimer” opening weekend? A Delaware court on Friday blocked the planned conversion of the company’s APE shares (APE) into AMC common stock (AMC).
The surprise ruling resulted in immediate gains for AMC shareholders but a major headache for Aron, who happens to be the company’s largest individual shareholder. The conversion would have diluted AMC’s shares of common stock, but raised much-needed capital.
Aron addressed the “existential” issue in an open letter posted on Twitter X. (Are we going with “X” now?)
