Their workforce is on strike, linear TV is in dire trouble and their streaming operations have ground to an absolute halt in regard to customer and revenue growth. But get ready for the major media conglomerates to blather on about the health and vitality of theatrical movie distribution during their upcoming quarterly earnings reports.
In what was, programming-wise, as perfectly planned an execution as you could ask of Hollywood, two very complimentary titles, Warner Bros. Pictures’ Barbie and Universal Pictures’ Oppenheimer, are being projected to have combined for nearly $230 million at theaters in the U.S. and Canada over the weekend.
Among a plethora of benchmarks, here’s one that resonates with us: In April 2019, the monster debut of Disney-Marvel's Avengers: Endgame resulted in a, er, boffo $402 million domestic box-office weekend.
Since that time, the domestic box office has had only one weekend in which its combined revenue approached $300 million territory, the December 17-19, 2021 frame, in which Sony's Spider-Man: No Way Home led a three-day bounty of nearly $283 million.
As of Sunday morning, the Penske showbiz trades were declaring this past weekend the fourth biggest at domestic theaters ever.
Barbie, director Greta Gerwig’s subversive take on the iconic doll franchise famously established by Mattel in the late 1950s, is being projected to gross around $155 million in its first three days, making it far and away the biggest opener ever for a title directed by a woman.
The film has skewed 64% female among ticket buyers.
The three-hour, dialogue-driven Oppenheimer, a historical drama tracking the creation of the atomic bomb and the political persecution of the man who led that effort, had acclaimed director Christopher Nolan’s third-biggest opening ever.
Breathless prognostications peg Oppenheimer's opening at around $80 million.
Oppenheimer has reportedly skewed around 68% male.
