Oppenheimer & Barbie expected to light up the second week with $107+ million, Haunted Mansion could be left in the shadows

Theaters all around are seeing some amazing business for the second week of Barbie and Oppenheimer‘s dual reign. As much as people online latched onto the joke that two wildly different films that both feature major talent would be pitted against each other, audiences flocked to theaters for a celebration of both and in a time of diminishing interest and uncertainty of movie house survival, the cinema is the place to be. Last weekend, the two films brought in an incredible $310 million at the box office. This makes it a historic showing as the fourth biggest weekend in the history of the box office, and in a post-COVID world to boot.

It looks like Oppenheimer and Barbie will cause a chain reaction for the second weekend, as Deadline reports that the double bill is estimated to remain solid at around $107 million, which would be a 56% drop, but a drop from a weekend with multiple sold out shows on regular screens and premium formats alike. A new entry in the dog fight will likely contribute to the drop as Haunted Mansion will start to move in on some of the premium screens; however, Disney’s reboot is also not expected to be a threat to the Barbenheimer train.

According to Deadline, “Exhibition and presales indicate a start of $30M+ for the Justin Simien-directed feature take of the Disney theme park ride, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if the movie comes in between $20M-$25M. That’s close to where the Eddie Murphy 2003 version debuted to, $24.2M, before finaling at $75.8M domestic.”

Haunted Mansion has the misfortune of not only following the double feature phenomenon but also suffering in marketing due to the SAG-AFTRA strike forbidding the stars from doing any promotion for the film. The hype for Haunted Mansion has the impossible task of matching the Barbenheimer buzz, and one of the conclusions that outlets are drawing from last week’s success is that audiences are showing their starvation for non-remakes/reboots/superhero films. In fact, Barbie has recently had the honor of connecting with Christopher Nolan in another manner as it garnered the biggest take for the beginning of the week, surpassing Nolan’s 2008 juggernaut The Dark Knight, which previously held the honor.