Box Office: ‘Haunted Mansion’ $9.9 Million Opening Day Can’t Scare ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’

Jordan Moreau “Barbie” has reigned over the box office with a historic, hot-pink theatrical run over the past four weeks, but now it’s facing its biggest challenge yet: DC’s latest superhero film, “Blue Beetle.” The comic book film, led by “Cobra Kai” star Xolo Maridueña, picked up $3.3 million in Thursday previews at the domestic box office. It’ll be a close box office battle between “Barbie” and “Blue Beetle” (both from Warner Bros.), but the latter is tipped to come out on top in its opening weekend. “Blue Beetle” is projected to make between $25 million to $32 million this weekend, while “Barbie” is poised to add $17 million to $20 million in its fifth week.

Low end forecasts have Sony’s Denzel Washington starring, Antoine Fuqua-directed action threequel, The Equalizer 3 at $30M+ over 4-days.

Universal and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer debuted in more than 500 locations in Korea on Tuesday, capitalizing on the Liberation Day national holiday. The epic bowed to $4.3M, capturing 44% market share for the day in a highly competitive environment.

Barbie‘s dream house full of box office keeps getting stuffed with cash with the Greta Gerwig-directed Mattel doll adaptation becoming the highest grossing Warner Bros. movie ever in the studio’s 100 year history at the domestic box office with $537.4M, unseating previous champ, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight which made $534.9M back in 2008.

Naman Ramachandran Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” and Universal’s “Oppenheimer” continued ruling the U.K. and Ireland box office for a fourth consecutive weekend. Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” topped the charts yet again with £4.4 million ($5.6 million) for a total of £78.2 million, per numbers from Comscore.

Refresh for latest…: It’s still a Barbie world this weekend as the Greta Gerwig-directed charmer reached a global cume of $1.184B. Last session, Margot Robbie’s living doll crossed the $1B threshold, and in this 4th frame added $45.1M in 75 offshore markets (a 47% dip) to bring the international box office cume to $657.6M. 

Hunter Ingram Nearly four decadesago, in 1984, David Kirschner arrived early for a meeting with then-Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg carrying a broomstick, a mop and a hollowed-out Electrolux vacuum. He called ahead to request access to the conference room a half hour before the pitch meeting began to hang the trio of centuries-spanning cleaning instruments from the ceiling with fishing line. He also brought his eighth-grade biology textbook wrapped in a leathery material, hoping it looked enough like human skin, and a grocery store candle, on which he hand-drew Latin witchcraft imagery he couldn’t translate and toasted in an oven to look aged.

Michaela Zee “The Last Voyage of the Demeter,” a new period horror film set aboard a merchant ship, is capsizing in its debut at the domestic box office amid the ongoing success of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” The Universal release — the studio’s second stab this year at a Dracula film after the action-comedy “Renfield” bombed in the spring — is facing some choppy waters after earning $2.62 million on its opening day from 2,715 locations, a figure that includes $750,000 in Thursday previews. “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” is projecting a fifth-place debut and a mere $6.5 million gross for its three-day opening weekend. Nothing really says the summer blockbuster season is winding down like an anachronistic genre picture meeting a swift end in its debut.

Box Office Mojo. “Barbie” has dominated the box office in the United States and Canada, making over $485.4 million as of Aug. 9.

FRIDAY AM UPDATE, refresh for more…The only new wide release this weekend is Amblin’s period Dracula horror pic The Last Voyage of the Demeter being distributed by Universal. It made $750K last night in previews from showtimes that began at 5PM in 2,350 theaters in what is expected to be an underwhelming 3-day single digit million result for the $45M feature production. The R-rated pic expands to 2,715 theaters today.

Naman Ramachandran “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” ruled the U.K. and Ireland box office for the third consecutive weekend with a combined £13.4 million ($17 million), per numbers from Comscore. Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” topped the charts again with £7.9 million and now has a total of £67.5 million.

Greta Gerwig is making history! Three weeks after its debut in theaters, Barbie has surpassed $1 billion at the box office, making Gerwig the first female director to hit this box office milestone as a solo director.In a statement, Warner Bros. said the fantasy-comedy movie has taken in $459 million from domestic theaters — counting the United States and Canada — and another $572.1 million overseas since it hit theaters, for a total of $1.0315 billion.

Naman Ramachandran The U.K. and Ireland box office soared to £160.7 million ($205.1 million) in July thanks to “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” according to numbers released by Comscore. The July box office was 78% higher than June and 27% higher than July 2022.

Naman Ramachandran Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” and Universal’s “Oppenheimer” continued their domination of the U.K. and Ireland box office with a combined £21.4 million ($27.3 million) after their second weekend, per numbers from Comscore. Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” topped the charts for the second week in a row with £13.2 million, and now has a total of £47.9 million.

EXCLUSIVE: The UK box office is booming thanks to Barbenheimer.

The ‘Barbenheimer’ reign has no end in sight!

We knew Warner Bros’ Barbie and Universal’s Oppenheimer were going to be big, but not this big.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic If you came into the “Barbie” film cold, expecting that if any song was going to get the most play, it might be Aqua’s “Barbie World,” you had a surprise coming. Turns out Barbie is a huge Indigo Girls fan — or, at least like a million women and some men before her, she likes to belt along with the 1989 folk-rock smash “Closer to Fine” in the car. The song pops up three times over the course of the blockbuster film, guaranteeing that there is going to be a huge resurgence in the real world of people singing about going “to see the doctor of philosophy,” even if they’re actually on their way to the beach.

After a blowout debut weekend, Barbenheimer showed strong continued momentum at the international box office on Monday. Warner Bros’ Barbie for its part had the best Monday ever for the studio overseas at $32M from 69 markets (it also scored the studio’s best Monday domestically). The running offshore total through yesterday is $226.3M, bringing the global Kenergy to $414.4M.

Air-conditioned Broadway held its own as New York City plunged ever deeper into a hot summer last week, with total box office receipts keeping steady at $31,520,593, a tiny increase of 2% over the previous week.