Barbie box office: Margot Robbie film eyes $80 million opening, Oppenheimer could make a $40 mn debut

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie could open to anywhere near $80 million or even more on its first day in theatres. The film stars Margot Robbie in the title role and Ryan Gosling as Ken. Meanwhile, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer starring Cillian Murphy has a shot at $50 million in its box office debut. Both films, two of the year’s most-anticipated movies, will be released on July 21. Also read: Here’s what Tom Cruise has to say about the clash between Oppenheimer and Barbie

As per a recent report, together Barbie and Oppenheimer promise a near-$200 million weekend at the US box office over July 21-23. While the buzz around Greta Gerwig’s star-studded live-action movie Barbie continues to grow as fans gear up for its premiere next month, Oppenheimer is a more serious drama about the origin of the atomic bomb.

Opening day box office predictions

While Warner Bros conservatively is saying $60 million, as per a new Deadline report, Barbie’s opening day collection is the ‘start of $80 million minimum’. The report added that this, too, is ‘a tampered-down expectation because Barbie on paper has all the glitz for a potential $100 million start’.

Apart from Barbie presales, the reports also touched upon Oppenheimer’s box office predictions saying a ‘$40 million-to-possible $50 million opening’ is expected for the Christopher Nolan film. Comparing the two films, the report quoted one distribution insider as saying, “It’s (Oppenheimer is) as much male and older as Barbie is female and younger.”

The report added that the rest of the near-$200 million weekend over July 21-23 will also include the $35 million collection from the second weekend of Tom Cruise-starrer Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. The film is scheduled to be released on July 12.

Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig promote Oppenheimer

On Friday, Robbie and Gerwig shared three images of themselves standing in front of film posters holding tickets for the Tom Cruise-starrer Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One as well as James Mangold’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.

Sharing the pictures from Barbie the movie’s official Twitter account, they said in the caption, “Mission: Accepted!”

About Barbie

After Warner Bros. unveiled a first look at the film and its release date on Twitter in April 2022, fans immediately began to speculate what they could expect from the forthcoming Barbie movie.

In the irreverent comedy, Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) venture beyond the perfect, pink, plastic dreamland they share with dozens of other Barbies and Kens, and find themselves in the real world, much to the annoyance of a Mattel executive played by Will Ferrell.

Oppenheimer

Christopher Nolan, known for films such as Tenet, Interstellar, Inception and The Prestige, has directed Oppenheimer. This marks the first time he has made a biopic of a real person – J Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the theoretical physicist, who helped develop the first nuclear weapons.

Emily Blunt will be seen as his wife with a supporting cast that includes Robert Downey Jr, Matt Damon and Florence Pugh.