Barbenheimer; who won the battle between ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ after their opening weekends?

For months it was pegged as the cinematic double header that could potentially revitalise the trudging theatre business, with promises of people making a day at their local cinema to watch both movies. But now that both “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” have had their grand openings nationwide, who ended up with the better box office of the two?

We know that Greta Gerwig’s feature had the higher budget, with it’s marketing costs alone estimated to have run into $100 million USD - half of the budget for the DCEU blockbuster “The Flash'' - while Christopher Noaln’s three-hour opus earned itself critical reviews from reviewers, audience members and even the pair who wrote the book Nolan based his screenplay on, “American Prometheus.” However, there was also a group of fans who found it long and boring too, despite the audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 

As it stands, “Barbie” topped the weekend box office between the two; while “Oppenheimer” took an impressive $80.5 million in its opening weekend, with a budget of $50 million said to have been spent on it’s production, “Barbie” opened to a staggering $155 million in its opening weekend, only $110 million off it’s estimated production and marketing costs we reported last week.

That amount has ensured that director Gerwig makes history as the biggest box office opening for a female director, and that the film is the biggest box office opening weekend for 2023, trumping the previous record holder, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which opened at $146,361,865 USD when it opened in April 2023. “Oppenheimer,” despite not opening in as many cinemas as “Barbie,” is still the eighth biggest box office opening for the year, and only $15 million behind “The Little Mermaid.”

The next benchmark for both movies will be its opening week numbers across the world, despite “Barbie” only landing in fifth position at the box office in China, after controversy surrounding a map that was used in the film depicting disputed territories China has laid claim to.

The top ten box office openings in 2023

According to Box Office Mojo, these are the biggest box office openings for 2023 so far:

1. Barbie: $155,000,000
2. The Super Mario Bros. Movie: $146,361,865
3. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: $120,663,589
4. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: $118,414,021
5. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: $106,109,650
6. The Little Mermaid: $95,578,040
7. Oppenheimer: $80,500,000
8. John Wick: Chapter 4: $73,817,950
9. Fast X: $67,017,410
10. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts: $61,045,464