It’s Barbie’s world now. The reigning queen of the box office has pulled in around $800 million globally through two weeks, while domestic totals topped more than a third of a billion dollars.
But the box office magic doesn’t stop there. Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” had the best second weekend ever for an R-rated summer movie at $46.6 million, becoming the first R-rated film to gross more than $10 million per day for 10 days in a row. So far “Oppenheimer” has brought in more than $400 million worldwide.
But the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon that took movie theaters by storm this summer isn’t enough to divert the storm cloud brewing from ongoing writer and actor strikes.
“There are headwinds happening right now amidst this sugar high that we’re on with ‘Barbenheimer,’” Comscore Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian said.
How are strikes having an immediate impact?
“No question that the writers’ strike and the actors’ strike have a profound impact the longer this goes on, meaning actors can’t actively promote their films, go on talk shows, do Q&As, all those various appearances, red carpets,” Dergarabedian said. “And that certainly puts a damper a bit on the marketing efforts. And then beyond that, if you don’t have writers writing scripts, you don’t have movies in the pipeline. So that will eventually slow down, maybe not completely dry up.”
The actors’ strike will certainly impact more star-driven movies in terms of marketing, Dergarabedian said. But he doesn’t blame just that for the Disney “Haunted Mansion” flop, which came out one week after “Barbenheimer” and brought in a measly $24 million domestically on its first weekend.
“The steamroller that is ‘Barbenheimer’ was just gonna take out everything in its wake,” he said. “And I think that happened with ‘Haunted Mansion.’ The good news, I think, for ‘Haunted Mansion’ is that Halloween is right around the corner, Disney+ is waiting.”
How long before the content machine dries up?
“The longer this goes, and especially when we get into the holiday movie season, awards season, where it’s really important that the actors and filmmakers go out and talk about those movies, that’s a big deal,” Dergarabedian said. “And then beyond that, again, if you don’t have scripts being written, you can’t produce movies. And if you don’t have movies, what are you going to go to the movie theater for?”
Hollywood is already making adjustments in the wake of the strikes, which have had little movement over the past months. For instance, Sony pushed back the release date of “Gran Turismo” by two weeks amid the strikes, now set to come out Aug. 25.
Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America and major studios have agreed to meet this week for the first time since the writers’ strike began in May.
How ‘Barbenheimer’ bolstered the box office
Movie theaters will have no say in strike negotiations, though they’ll surely be impacted the longer they go on. But for now, the box office is basking in the sun of “Barbenheimer,” the best cinematic movement since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think this is the greatest thing – the ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon – that could have happened for movie theaters. Because if the naysayers aren’t silenced at this point about thinking that the movie theater is gonna go away and streaming is gonna take over, I don’t know what you have to do,” Dergarabedian said. “There’s nothing like that cultural resonance that a movie theater release can bring.”
