Barbie and Oppenheimer 'Barbenheimer' powers Fourth biggest weekend at North America box office

Barbie & Oppenheimer clashed in the 'Barbenheimer' box office showdown, wowing critics & audiences alike. Barbie pulled in $159M while Oppenheimer followed at $81M, combining for a staggering $240M.

By Jatinder Singh

Published on Jul 23, 2023 | 09:00 PM IST | 135.8K

Margot Robbie in 'Barbie' and Cillian Murphy in 'Oppenheimer' (Warner Bros and Universal Studios)

The highly anticipated box office showdown between Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" and Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer," known as "Barbenheimer," finally took place this week. Both films received outstanding reception from critics and audiences, resulting in impressive box office performances. According to studio estimates, "Barbie" debuted with $155 million domestically, playing in 4243 locations, while "Oppenheimer" followed closely in second with $80.50 million from 3610 locations. These figures are projected to increase to $159 million+ and $81 million+ respectively when the final numbers are reported tomorrow.

Combined, "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" raked in a staggering $240 million at the North American box office over the weekend. Additionally, with an extra $67 million from holdovers, the total weekend box office in North America reached a remarkable $307 million, making it the largest weekend in the post-pandemic era. This surpassed the previous record set on December 17-19, 2021, when "Spider-man: No Way Home" debuted with $260 million, resulting in a weekend market total of $284 million.

In historical context, the "Barbenheimer" weekend now stands as the fourth biggest ever in North America. This weekend also marked only the fourth instance where the weekend box office surpassed the $300 million milestone. The top spot still belongs to April 26-28, 2019, when "Avengers: Endgame" opened with an astonishing $358 million, contributing to an overall weekend market total of $404 million. To date, this remains the only weekend where the box office exceeded the $400 million mark.

The top five weekends at the North American box office, along with the names of the biggest releases during those periods, are as follows: