Friday Update: Warner Bros. reports this morning that Barbie has earned $22.3 million from domestic previews, a number that included traditional Thursday previews (beginning at 3pm) and 500 locations that hosted “Barbie Blowout Parties” on Wednesday.
In tandem, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer bowed to $10.5 million from Thursday previews beginning at 5pm.
Breaking it down, the “Barbenheimer” hype train is driving audiences to cinemas in droves for both films. Barbie‘s start marks the best preview gross since Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ($28 million) last November, while Oppenheimer‘s early result is the best for an R-rated film since Joker ($13.3 million) and It: Chapter Two ($10.5 million) in late 2019.
Here’s how each film stacks up to comparable preview results.
Barbie:
- 28 percent ahead of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ($17.4 million)
- 117 percent ahead of The Little Mermaid ($10.3 million)
- 27 percent ahead of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ($17.5 million each)
- 8 percent ahead of Captain Marvel ($20.7 million)
- 103 percent ahead of Wonder Woman ($11 million)
- 37 percent ahead of Beauty and the Beast ($16.3 million)
Oppenheimer:
- 50 percent ahead of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One ($7 million)
- 46 percent ahead of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ($7.2 million)
- 18 percent ahead of John Wick: Chapter 4 ($8.9 million)
- 64 percent ahead of Nope ($6.4 million)
- 106 percent ahead of Dune ($5.1 million)
- 91 percent ahead of Dunkirk ($5.5 million)
As for weekend trajectories, these two films hitting theaters over the same weekend will continue to skew all pinpoint projections. With that in mind, these previews results are on the upper end of expectations baked into final forecasts and ranges.
More updates to follow throughout the weekend.
