'Barbenheimer' arrives with promise of $200M movie-ticket weekend
Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images Entertainment
Get ready, moviegoers: Barbenheimer is in the building.
Barbie (NASDAQ:WBD) and Oppenheimer (NASDAQ:CMCSA) are next up at the box office as the industry wrestles with an underwhelming summer season -- make that potentially "last up," as the rest of the summer calendar is devoid of the season's usual blockbusters.
The films are generating considerable buzz as they look to follow up a pair of lackluster big-ticket items: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (DIS) and Mission: Impossible -- Dead Reckoning Part One (NASDAQ:PARA) (PARAA) have each done big numbers, but not quite as big as predicted. Meanwhile, Pixar's Elemental (DIS) also disappointed with its opening, and The Flash (WBD) fizzled quickly on arrival.

Hopes for the latest releases include a social-media craze encouraging filmgoers to follow through on "Barbenheimer" and see the two quite-different films as a double feature over the weekend.
AMC (NYSE:AMC) CEO Adam Aron says more than 60,000 AMC Stubs members have bought same-day tickets to the two films. Overall, an estimated 200,000 moviegoers booked double-feature tickets for the weekend.
That could lead to a $200M weekend industrywide, among the biggest since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Barbie, the film portraying a real-life version of the iconic Mattel (MAT) doll, is predictably likely the bigger draw of the two films. A bubbly, winking comedy, it hit $22.3M in Thursday previews, the year's best total on that measure (topping Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3's $17.5M) and among the best ever. It's tracking toward an opening of at least $110M -- and if customers are responding to the massive marketing, even up to $130M or $140M.
Oppenheimer -- Christopher Nolan's somber three-hour biopic about the "father of the atomic bomb" -- drew $10.5M in previews, and it's likely tracking to just under $50M, though Universal is reportedly setting its bar at $40M.
Compared to earlier-summer tentpoles, Barbie and Oppenheimer both came at more reasonable production price tags, setting up a higher likelihood of profit for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and Universal (CMCSA).
Cinema tickers: AMC Entertainment (AMC); Cineworld (OTCPK:CNNWQ); Cinemark (CNK); (IMAX); Marcus (MCS); Reading International (RDI); Cineplex (CGX:CA); National CineMedia (NCMI).
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