Box Office: ‘Barbie’ Blasts Off With $22.3M in Previews, ‘Oppenheimer’ Rakes in $10.5M

Barbie earned a huge $22.3 million in box office previews, the best showing of summer 2023.

That’s ahead of May tentpole Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which scored $17.5 million in previews, as well as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ($17.4 million).

The preview puts Barbie on course to open to as much as $110 million domestically, if not more. That’s a huge sum for a female-skewing event movie. It would also be one of the top openings of the summer season. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling star in the Greta Gerwig-directed film.

Barbie goes up against Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer in what’s being billed as Barbenheimer.

Nolan’s film is pacing to open to $49 million, says a source who with access to tracking data (Universal is hoping for $40 million or more). The three-hour movie chronicles the career of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who is considered the father of the atomic bomb. Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt and Matt Damon lead the star-studded cast.

Oppenheimer earned a strong $10.5 million in Thursday previews. That’s likewise one of the better showings of the summer and is ahead of previews for Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One.

No one could have predicted that Barbie and Oppenheimer would be at the center of this summer’s most interesting showdown at the multiplex, considering they couldn’t be more different in tone and scope.

The summer box office could use a lift after several big-budget misses, including The Flash (Warner Bros./DC Studios), Elemental (Disney/Pixar) and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Disney/Lucasfilm). And last weekend, Tom Cruise-starrer Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One fell short of tracking projections when posting a five-day debut of $78.5 million, versus the $90 million-plus it had been tracking to earn.

More to come.