The Hollywood mega-films, which began competing at the box office Yesterday, have divided moviegoers.
Barbie and Oppenheimer, two highly awaited movies from Hollywood, went head-to-head at the box office yesterday after weeks of magazines, cinema buffs, and social media accounts urging you to choose a “Team” for opening weekend.
The films span a wide range of genres, so it’s interesting to see how they perform internationally. Barbie, a self-aware comedy painted pink by Greta Gerwig, tells the tale of Barbie and Ken from Mattel who are expelled from their Dream House and thrust into the outside world.
The Christopher Nolan masterpiece Oppenheimer is a biographical thriller about a theoretical physicist who had a key role in developing nuclear weapons that forever altered the course of history.
According to The Guardian reports Barbie has triumphed in Western regions, with a sparkling $110 million opening expected in the US, compared to Oppenheimer’s $50 million.
Barbie is aiming for roughly $165 million globally, including $60 to $65 million from 69 foreign markets on Wednesday, including France and Korea, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, and all of Latin America on Thursday, and the UK and China on Friday.
Oppenheimer, however, is forecast to earn $45 million outside of the US and start the year with close to $100 million worldwide.
Oppenheimer, however, has outsold Barbie in India’s first weekend sales. According to the ticketing website BookMyShow, Nolan’s movie sold 360,000 seats in advance in India compared to Barbie’s 91,000.
Oppenheimer is anticipated to gross between Rs 7 and Rs 8 crore in India at the box office, while Barbie is predicted to come in second with between Rs 4 and Rs 5 crore.
According to Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, executive director of PVR INOX Limited, “Both movies are very, very strong, and it’s an unprecedented weekend.”
It’s not unusual for two Hindi films to release on the same weekend during a vacation, but two sizable English pictures in drastically different genres is unusual.
Both have received outstanding reviews. The manner they were monitoring has been quite positive even before the reviews.
“Many cinephiles had already reserved their seats for both of these films, following global patterns. According to BookMyShow, 8% of Oppenheimer ticket buyers also purchased tickets for Barbie, with the majority choosing to see both movies on the same day,” according to Ashish Saksena, COO of theatres, BookMyShow.
“In fact, we’ve seen that 27% of transactors for Oppenheimer recently watched Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (MI 7), further demonstrating the popularity of high-caliber Hollywood productions” he continued.
According to observers, Barbie is also in the lead in other regions since it is playing in more theaters and can host more performances because it is an hour shorter than its competition.
What makes Oppenheimer successful in India?
Both movies are only available in larger city markets in India. Christopher Nolan, who previously produced blockbusters like Inception, Interstellar, and The Dark Knight Rises, continues to have a large fan following in India.
In order to improve the storytelling experience, the movie was shot on IMAX 65mm and 65mm large-format film, combining for the first time passages in IMAX black-and-white analog photography. According to Preetham Daniel, vice president of IMAX Corporation’s APAC – theatre development, “People are very excited to watch the movie in IMAX for this very reason.”
Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, and Chennai have the greatest sales on BookMyShow due to Oppenheimer being the only release on IMAX screens this week.
According to reports, viewers are traveling from all around to IMAX theaters to watch shows in the early going before spoilers are published.
Getting on the Nolan Express, Saksena continues, “A staggering 42% of tickets ordered on BookMyShow were for immersive cinematic forms, notably the IMAX format, with cinephiles fighting for the best theater experience for a striking film like Oppenheimer.
“India is not typically thought of as a market where ‘advance tickets’ are booked. The FOMO (fear of missing out) element has caused people to book Oppenheimer tickets in advance ever since they went on sale, but this is the first time, ” according to Daniel.
Additionally, Oppenheimer is the first Hollywood film that is not a franchise to have early morning screenings at 3 am. Siddharth Ostwal, who oversees creative strategy at Finnet Media and is a fan of Nolan, “observed that the theater was filled even at 6.30 in the morning when he saw Oppenheimer in Bengaluru”.
“I went to the first showing of the movie alone because I didn’t want to run the risk of experiencing FOMO. Even though performance tickets can cost up to Rs 2,450, they have all been sold out.” He remarks, “The movie is definitely a must-watch,” as promised.
With both films receiving outstanding reviews and positive word-of-mouth, cinephiles have been enthusiastic about experiencing high-caliber Hollywood productions.
The clash of these two vastly different genres and the strong performance of Oppenheimer in India make this a unique and unprecedented weekend for the film industry.
As the battle at the box office continues, both Barbie and Oppenheimer have left their mark, captivating audiences and reinforcing the global appeal of Hollywood cinema.
