Advance Bookings India: Oppenheimer sells 1.68 lakh tickets in national chains while Barbie sells 64 thousand

Oppenheimer and Barbie have taken the Indian exhibition by storm with excellent advance bookings ahead of their release on the 21st of July, 2023.

By Rishil Jogani

Published on Jul 20, 2023 | 02:40 PM IST | 112K

Both Oppenheimer and Barbie look to take a blistering start at the Indian box office (Credit: Universal Studios, Warner Bros)

The 21st July, 2023 weekend was never really expected to be a big weekend at the Indian box office, say a couple of months from now. Oppenheimer and Barbie were expected to do well in their domestic market but were never seen as commanding forces that would take the Indian market by storm. The advance bookings for both movies are such that they would surprise any layman who follows the ticketing movement in India's top 3 national multiplex chains.

Oppenheimer And Barbie Cumulatively Sell Over 2.3 Lakh Tickets In Top 3 Indian National Chains, 10 Hours Prior To The End Of Day Following Their Release

Christopher Nolan is among the greatest and biggest movie brands in cinema history. His film Oppenheimer is a 3 hour long docu-drama with an 'A' certification but that has in no way dampened its prospects in India. The film has already sold 1.68 lakh tickets in PVR, Inox and Cinepolis combined as at 2pm, a day prior to its release and by the end of day, it should have sold well over 2 lakh tickets. These are insane numbers and an opening day of over Rs 10 crores nett seems locked if the momentum is carried on till the end of release day. Greta Gerwig's Barbie, led by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling is also doing some very surprising numbers in India's national chains. It has sold 64 thousand tickets and by the end of the day, it should most likely be over 1 lakh. This should more or less lock a Rs 5 crore nett for Barbie, ahead of the likes of Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny, The Flash, Spider-Man: Across The Spiderverse, Transformers and others. The audience for Hollywood films is growing at an alarmingly rapid pace in India, and they are also posing a threat to domestic Indian releases.

Oppenheimer And Barbie Global Projections

While Oppenheimer leads Barbie in India, Barbie leads Oppenheimer in practically every other territory. A global cumulative opening weekend for both films is pegged at over 350 million dollars. Most would believe that the two films would have done more business had they released in separate weeks but in this case, both films are complementing eachother to do better than what they would, had they released solo.