Barbie vs Oppenheimer: who will win the box office battle?

Mission: Impossible 7, which will be released a week earlier at the cinema, will also weigh in the balance.

Since Warner Bros and Universal decided to release Barbie And Oppenheimer on the same day, fans of Christopher Nolan and Margot Robbie continue to amuse themselves with this unlikely situation.

On July 19 (and 21 in the United States), these two blockbusters whose budget is estimated at 100 million dollars each will face off at the box office. We already know which one should win the battle…

When Matt Damon learns that Barbie will be released the same day as Oppenheimer

Whether Barbie looks as colorful asOppenheimer is dark (hence the same of the two American houses that was immediately associated with them), the two films have several points in common. Thematically, already, the one inspired by Mattel’s dolls promises to be deeper than one might think: its trailers tease feminist reflections or on death and the meaning of life, and quote references unexpected such as 2001, a space odyssey Or Matrix. However, it is unlikely to be as dark as the biopic of the creator of the atomic bomb, whose life was littered with drama and dilemma.

Christopher Nolan: “Oppenheimer leaves spectators devastated, speechless”

The other undeniable common point of these projects is that they are both directed by renowned directors: Greta Gerwig was acclaimed for lady bird And The Daughters of Doctor Marchand Nolan’s work is globally appreciated, especially his trilogy Dark Knight And Interstellar. A SF film which was also openly inspired by the same Stanley Kubrick classic, 2001 !

Both are also supported by impressive casts: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Will Ferrell, Dua Lipa, John Cena, Ncuti Gatwa, etc. For Barbie ; Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon… for Oppenheimer.

Finally, they will go to war to be projected in Imax in the United States, the two studios having reserved most of the equipped rooms, to the great displeasure of Tom Cruise and Paramount, which are releasing Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning part 1 a week earlier. The cinema tickets costing more for this type of screenings promising great entertainment, Universal has achieved a big blow on this level.

What was shaping up to be a fight of two blockbusters is turning into a three-way war. Mid-July is logically a preferred date for Hollywood firms for their summer blockbusters. Hence the blocking of this date of July 21 very early. The maintenance of the two films face to face is more surprising. Why didn’t Warner and Universal decide to postpone one of their films for a week or two to ensure their success? This is the question posed The Hollywood Reporter.

Note that other blockbusters are expected this summer, but not on the same scale as Barbie And Oppenheimer : The haunted mansiona new adaptation of the attraction from Disney studios, will be released on July 28 in the United States, In very troubled watersFollowing Meg with Jason Statham, will be scheduled at the very beginning of August and ninja turtles will face Gran Turismo August 9. Indiana Jones 5 being scheduled for the last Friday of June, its receipts will already be largely accumulated when Barbie And Oppenheimer will arrive in dark rooms.

“Of course, changing a release date during production is not so easy, details the American article. Some think that it is not ideal to have two big films which will be released on the same day at the where the box office is still recovering from the pandemic.Others speculate that Barbie And Oppenheimer couldn’t be more different, opposite in scope and ambition, and that there should be enough room for both.”

By recovering the new film by Chris Nolan, after twenty years of partnership with Warner Bros, Universal immediately blocked the date of July 21, 2023. As soon as the project was announced in September 2021, the deadline was communicated. At that time, the competing studio had planned on that date a Coyote vs. ACME with John Cena. Taken from Looney Tunes, this project has been postponed indefinitely. Let us also specify that since the departure of Nolan from his initial studio, the leaders of Warner would like thathe comes back collaborate with them.

If at the start, few people believed in the potential of Barbiea long-announced film (notably with Amy Schumer) without the studio managing to materialize it, the latest predictions from box office specialists today announce a victory for this film over Oppenheimer. Without giving precise scores, however.

“Preliminary analyzes indicate that Barbie will win the match of the weekend of July 21-23 against Oppenheimer“, written like this THR. The site then recalls that the biopic of the inventor of the atomic bomb will be R-Rated, i.e. not recommended for children under 17 not accompanied by an adult, where Barbie will be PG-13. Not exactly for everyone, then, as one would expect from a film inspired by Mattel’s doll. It will not be recommended for children under 13 unaccompanied by an adult because of “its suggestive references and colloquial language.”

These bans can weigh heavily on a film’s box office. Nolan’s last achievement to be R-Rated was insomniahis thriller carried by Robin Williams and Al Pacino, in 2002. All his following films were released in PG-13, despite their serious subjects (Dunkirk already detailed a dark page of the Second World War) or their shock scenes: the crimes of the Joker of Heath Ledger for example did not result in R-Rated in 2008. It is therefore a bet for Universal, who knows that less than 20 R-Rated productions have passed the 500 million mark worldwide. Against more than 200 with a lower ban! Concretely, few films record huge successes being seen mainly by an adult audience. Jokerby Todd Phillips, is an exception: it is the only one to have recorded more than a billion dollars in the world, while 49 blockbusters have achieved this feat in PG or PG-13.

Next Sunday July 23, the articles on the weekend box office should therefore announce Barbie in the lead, followed byOppenheimerand no doubt Mission: Impossible 7 at the end of the podium. “There is even a scenario where Oppenheimer starts in third position”writing THRwhich recalls that Nolan had already started in second place during his career without his film being a failure: in 2014, Interstellar was facing Disney’s New Heroes, which did not prevent him from pocketing more than 700 million dollars in revenue.

For Ncuti Gatwa, “Barbie is already a cultural phenomenon, even though it hasn’t even been released yet”