Box Office Update: Barbie and Oppenheimer rule while Demeter tanks

Numbers have begun rolling in for the weekend and as expected Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is remaining in the top spot for a fourth week in a row with an estimated $30 million. That number puts the Margot Robbie/ Ryan Gosling fronted film at over half a billion dollars domestic, officially making it the highest grossing movie directed by a woman at both the domestic box office (beating Frozen II’s $477.4 million, which was co-directed by Jennifer Lee) and global box office (beating Captain Marvel’s $1.13 billion, which was co-directed by Anna Boden.) Even more impressive is that Barbie passed that half a billion dollar mark in just 22 days, which is faster than both Top Gun: Maverick (30 days) and Super Mario Bros. Movie (31 days). 

Reclaiming second place this weekend is Christopher Nolan’s epic Oppenheimer with an estimated $16-$17 million and a running total just over $262.2 million at the domestic box office while its global take hits over $600 million. Absolutely insane numbers for a 3-hour biopic. 

There is an emerging good news/ bad news for the remainder of the year and that is with the ongoing Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild strikes going on, some movies are expected to delay their respective releases as they count on the stars to promote the films. This is the reason Gran Turismo was delayed by two weeks in a hope to build word of mouth from advanced screenings while the Emma Stone starring Frankenstein story Poor Things saw its release delayed to December in hopes the strikes would be over by then and the star could properly promote her second film with director Yorgos Lanthimos after her Oscar nominated performance in The Favourite. As of right now, Warner Bros is said to be considering a delay to their fourth quarter tent pole release of Dune: Part Two although no official decision has yet been made. If movies start dropping off the calendar, that could mean movies such as Barbie and Oppenheimer could dominate the charts well into October and November. The good news is that as of yesterday the Writers Guild and the AMPTP were back at the negotiating table and will hopefully come to a compromise soon which will hopefully be followed by a SAG compromise and we can head into the holiday movie season like normal, well, normal for post-covid times that is.

Third place will go to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem with an estimated take of $14-$16 million which would represent just around a 50% decline from its opening last week. The film is playing to some pretty strong word of mouth, but even more importantly: it carries a relatively cheap by today’s standards $70 million price tag which means when all is said and done, Mutant Mayhem should see some solid profit and we will get that sequel that was teased!

With the Turtles moving up in the world, that leaves Meg 2: The Trench to sink a little with what is looking like a 60% decline and a $12 million second weekend take. The good news for the film is that its international numbers are strong, so even though the film carries a budget in the $130 million range, Meg 2: The Trench may still see some green at the end of its run.

The bad news for the week is that the new release The Last Voyage of the Demeter appears to be cratering with just $6-$7 million. Critical consensus is that the movie just doesn’t do enough to create a solid new entry in the Vampire movie genre. Our own Jessica Dwyer found enough to enjoy in her 8/10 review. While names such as Stephen King and Guillermo Del Toro have given the film solid feedback with King calling it “a throat ripping good time.” The film’s current audience score is at 74% which isn’t too bad, but it isn’t that great either. 

Have you made it to theaters yet this weekend or is it still on your list of things to do? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to check back tomorrow when we have a full rundown of this weekend’s box office.