The ‘Barbie’ movie explodes the world box office, raising more than 300 million in its first weekend

The box office race between black and pink is already rising with a clear winner. BarbieGreta Gerwig’s film about the famous Mattel doll, has won the pulse of oppenheimer, the biopic about the creator of the atomic bomb directed by Christopher Nolan. Gerwig’s film starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling has managed to raise 337 million dollars, that is, 303 million euros, and of them 155 (almost 140 million euros) only at the box office in the United States between Thursday, when it was released, Friday and Saturday. The most apocalyptic of Nolan starring Cillian Murphy has not fared badly either: 94 million worldwide and another 80.5 million dollars in the US, in total, almost 174 million dollars, 157 million euros globally.

In total, both have exceeded 460 million euros in worldwide collections, quite a milestone, especially for some ailing movie theaters where not even the adventures of the last Indiana Jones of Harrison Ford or the acrobatics through the air of Tom Cruise in the recent installment of Mission Impossible They have managed to overcome a collection that, since the pandemic, is still very weak.

For the moment and thanks to these data it is clear that Barbie and oppenheimerin a joint phenomenon baptized as Barbenheimer, have managed to complement each other and bring millions of people to refresh themselves, physically and mentally, in rooms around the world. So much so that their joint premiere has made this the fourth best weekend in history at the US box office, an especially striking phenomenon since neither of them is a movie about superheroes, for whom the Olympus of “No tickets left” is usually reserved.

The two films break some records. BarbieAfter an immense campaign of marketing, it becomes the film directed by a woman with the best opening figures in the US. It is also already the title with the best opening in 2023, surpassing the film about Super Mario Bros, the plumber from the Nintendo video game, by about 10 million, as well as the latest Spiderman and Guardians of the Galaxy franchises. It is also the best premiere for its two leads, Robbie —also a producer— and Gosling, and the best for Warner beyond a DC Comics movie or a sequel. Besides, oppenheimer becomes Nolan’s third best film upon its release, behind the two of The dark knight. It is the third best opening of an autobiographical film, after The Sniper in 2014 and Passion of Christfrom 2004.

The figures mean that both films far exceed their production costs. Barbie it has supposed 145 million dollars; It has already doubled those numbers. oppenheimer it cost 100. The two have managed to make this penultimate weekend of July the only one in the US that has records of a film that exceeds 100 million and another that reaches 50. It is estimated that, in their country of origin, some 200,000 people have bought tickets to see both during this weekend.

To them is added a third phenomenon, much more unexpected: that of the independent film sound of freedom, the sound of freedom, a film kept in a drawer since 2018 and whose rights have been made by Angel Studios, which distributes it thanks to a crowdfunding for which 7,000 people totaled five million dollars. It has managed to exceed 110 million dollars since its premiere, on July 4, with the true story of Tim Ballard, a former employee of the US Government who went to Colombia and from there disarmed a child trafficking network. A controversial work that has even dazzled Donald Trump, who organized a press pass at his New Jersey home attended by its producers —the Mexican Jorge Verástegui, ultra-Catholic and founder of an extreme right-wing party in Hollywood—, its director and its controversial protagonist, Jim Caviezel.