Warner/Universal/Disney
FRIDAY LATE NIGHT UPDATE after midday update: No major seismic changes at the box office here tonight from what we saw this afternoon as Barbie continues to roll in dream house dough with an industry estimated second weekend between $90M-$94M at 4,337 theaters, -44% on the low end, for a running total of $348M-$352M.
It’s not surprising to see a higher figure here on Barbie, given how the Mattel doll has pulled in Marvel like grosses of $20M+ daily during the weekdays. Friday is looking like $28M, -60% from a week ago. That second weekend for Barbie isn’t that far from the $90.4M weekend two of Beauty and the Beast.
Last year at this time, all films totaled $97.9M for the weekend, and off of Barbie alone it’s clear we’re going to be, gosh, possibly north of $160M-$170M. Hopefully, SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP can get their acts together because this box office rally could hit some severe potholes of big pics like Dune: Part Two and Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom move out of the 2023 calendar.
Univeral’s Oppenheimer is seeing a second Friday of $13.5M,-58%, and second weekend of $46M, -44%, for a ten-day total of $173.8M at 3,647 theaters. This 3-hour period drama from the onset has always been ahead of Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, that pic posting a second weekend of $26.6M, -47%.
Disney’s Haunted Mansion is still seeing $10M for Friday and a 3-day of $25M at 3,740 theaters.
‘Talk to Me’
A24
There’s extra filler here for specialty chains as A24’s Australian horror movie, Talk to Me, is posting $4M (includes $1.24M Thursday previews) for Friday and around $10M for the weekend at 2,340 theaters. Both pics get a B+ CinemaScore.
For a horror film like Talk to Me, that’s solid, while Haunted Mansion’s is only an inch better than the B the Eddie Murphy 2003 movie received. Also, in terms of whether this was a successful reboot or not — likely the latter. Not that it’s not a solid number, but it’s just not that much improvement on the 2003 version with opened to $24.2M (unadjusted for inflation), which legged out to $75.8M. No doubt Barbie took air out of Haunted Mansion‘s sails. We’ll see after Saturday night if matinees push this to $30M, however, no one is seeing that at this point.
Still, nothing to complain about: Studios have product, competition is a good thing, and the fall/holiday box office could be headed for a cliff after the first major schedule changes by Sony on Friday with Kraven the Hunter and Ghostbusters sequel moving into 2024. The respective points to make here is that it takes stars to launch franchises, and it takes stars to finish movies (i.e. looping) as the SAG-AFTRA strike drags on.
Some distribs might snark at Sony for pushing Gran Turismo to Aug. 25, however, it’s smart because they stay out of the wake of Barbenheimer, and if the movie has any kind of pulse, can buoy August into September with Equalizer 3 and The Nun 2 still hold firming.
Sony keeps the following films in the fall: their TIFF comedy title Dumb Money on Sept. 22, Journey to Bethlehem on Nov. 11, the horror film Thanksgiving on Nov. 17, Apple Original Films’ Napoleon on Nov. 22 and the Glen Powell-Sydney Sweeney romantic comedy Anyone But You on Dec. 15.
Rounding out the box office, there’s Angel Studios’ Sound of Freedom in weekend 4 with a fourth estimated Friday of $4M at 3,411 theaters and 3-day of $13.3M, -33% and running total of $149.7M.
Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One booked at 3,191 theaters is seeing a third Friday of $3M, third weekend of $11.1M in fifth place, -42%, for a running total of $139.6M.
FRIDAY AM UPDATE: It’s another sexy $20M+ day for Barbie with Warner Bros reporting $21.2M on Thursday (-8% from Wednesday), ending its first week at $258.3M. The pic should easily become the fastest female demo feature to $300M, beating the 10 days that it took Beauty and the Beast to cross.
Among all Warner Bros Thursdays, Barbie is fourth after The Matrix Reloaded ($37.5M, May 15, 2003), The Hangover Part Two ($31.6M, May 26, 2011) and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($22M, July 16, 2009).
Oppenheimer made $10M yesterday, -6% from Wednesday, for a first week of $127.8M. Again, in the face of Barbie, that’s an excellent hold. Barbie is expected to gross around $70M in weekend 2, Oppenheimer is around $35M. We are hearing both pics are looking at the best second weekend presales ever.
The Boxoffice Company, which supplies showtimes to Google, TikTok, IMDB, Bing and Apple is reporting a record-breaking sales for its network of 150 exhibition partners. Barbie and Oppenheimer are collectively generating one of the best holdover weekends ever since Avengers: Endgame. Per the leading theater chains with the Box Office Company, this past week is shaping up to be the best full week of ticket sales since Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s full holiday week of Dec. 17-23, 2021.
Haunted Mansion began previews on Wednesday with Dolby Early Access Screenings at 7 p.m. followed by national previews at 3 p.m. yesterday and made $3.1M. Presales indicated a start of $30M, but the big x-factor is whether Barbie steals family business away, even though the theme park ride movie is gaining 200 PLF screens.
Haunted Mansion’s figure compares to Jungle Cruise ($2.7M from Thursday previews, but was also day-and-date on Disney+) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil ($2.3M, pre-pandemic).
Early PostTrak is smacking critics’ ‘Rotten Tomatoes grade of 40% rotten with 4 stars and 79% positive last night. Pic skewed female at 57% with 37% under 25.