Editor’s note: Dade Hayes and Jonathan Bing are co-authors of Open Wide: How Hollywood Box-Office Became a National Obsession. Hayes is Deadline’s Business Editor and Bing is Chief Communications Officer at Vice Media Group. The more things change, the more the Hollywood studios stay the same. At least that’s one of the surprising lessons of
Barbie
Even though kids are heading back to school, the summer box office isn’t giving up yet, and there’s a chance we could near $4 billion thanks to the final act power of Barbie and Oppenheimer. Warner Bros is hoping the first Latino superhero movie, Blue Beetle, will stoke its core moviegoers; that DC title seeing
Barbie‘s dream house keeps getting stuffed with cash. The Greta Gerwig-directed Mattel doll adaptation has become the highest grossing Warner Bros. movie in the studio’s 100-year history at the domestic box office with $537.4M, unseating previous champ, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight which made $534.9M back in 2008. Barbie crossed the half billion mark in
In what is poised to be a case of Warner Bros beating itself for the No. 1 spot at the box office this coming weekend, the studio’s new DC superhero title, Blue Beetle, is poised to halt Barbie‘s three-weekend streak with a $28M-$32M opening. Barbie, meanwhile per industry sources, is looking at a $22M-$24M fourth
Refresh for latest…: It’s still a Barbie world this weekend as the Greta Gerwig-directed charmer reached a global cume of $1.184B. Last session, Margot Robbie’s living doll crossed the $1B threshold, and in this 4th frame added $45.1M in 75 offshore markets (a 47% dip) to bring the international box office cume to $657.6M. Overall,
FRIDAY AM UPDATE: The only new wide release this weekend is Amblin’s period Dracula horror pic The Last Voyage of the Demeter being distributed by Universal. It made $750K last night in previews from showtimes that began at 5PM in 2,350 theaters in what is expected to be an underwhelming 3-day single digit million result
Deadline has confirmed that Warner Bros’ billion-dollar grossing Barbie won’t be getting a release in Kuwait, and it’s skating on thin ice in Lebanon. While local censorship authorities in Kuwait have deemed the Margot Robbie-Ryan Gosling pic as going against the grain of their values; Lebanon, which is typically liberal when it comes to LGBTQ+
Sequin- and self-actualization sprinkled congratulations are in order for Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie and all the dolls and guys as the phenomenon that is Barbie has now crossed $1B global in just its third weekend. We said yesterday it was on the cusp, and now here’s the pudding. Through Sunday, the international box office estimate is
As she heads into the third weekend of release, Warner Bros’ Barbie has hit two new milestones, crossing both $500M at the international box office and the nine-century mark worldwide. The Greta Gerwig-directed phenomenon added $16.8M from 69 offshore markets on Thursday, bringing the overseas total to $509.7M through yesterday. Globally, the doll is standing
FRIDAY MIDDAY: The third weekend of Warner Bros’ Barbie at $51M (-45%) is higher than the opening of the Brad Pitt action movie, Bullet Train, which did $30M during the first weekend of August. It just goes to show how far we’ve come along at the box office. The Greta Gerwig directed take on the
“Barbie is really important for us,” beamed Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav on the conglom’s Q2 earnings call about what will be the first pic to hit $1 billion under his reign. In celebrating the pic’s success, he indicated that the movie would hit streaming service Max in the fall. However, on a long
Paramount’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem cut through to second place on its opening day Wednesday with $10.2M at 3,513 theaters in what was another day led by Warner Bros.’ Barbie with $12.8M. Barbie with already $394.5M in the bank stateside will cross the $400M mark today on her 14th day in release (I
Not streaming, nor strikes, nor shell shock from the pandemic kept this July’s domestic box office down with studio tentpoles and a faith-based surprise movie racking up the second-best record for the month with $1.37 billion per Comscore. Warner Bros’ Barbie and Universal’s Oppenheimer were the No. 1 and 2 movies with $366.4M and $181.4M
As expected, Warner Bros’ Barbie has now officially crossed the six-century mark globally with Friday’s figures included. The global cume is $637.5M through yesterday with the international box office repping $350.5M after a $30.1M Friday in 69 offshore markets. The Greta Gerwig-directed phenom should high-heel it past $700M through Sunday worldwide. We’ll have much more
EXCLUSIVE: The UK box office is booming thanks to Barbenheimer. According to seven-day figures from Comscore, this past week is the highest ever recorded at the UK and Ireland box office, with £66,373,575 clocked from all movies between July 21-27. The feat has been fueled by the Barbenheimer phenomenon, which has seen Greta Gerwig’s Barbie
Very early figures here for Barbenheimer given their wonderous first week. So early we don’t have the figures for Disney’s Haunted Mansion previews yet, nor the official studio numbers. But it’s another sexy $20M+ day for Barbie with an estimated $21.4M on Thursday (-7% from Wednesday), ending its first week at $258.6M. The pic should
Wednesday isn’t a day like Tuesday, where there are cheap tickets up for sale, but that didn’t stop Warner Bros.’ Barbie from continuing its daily weekday $20M+ streak. The Greta Gerwig-directed feature grossed $23M yesterday, -12% from Tuesday, sending its six-day running total to $237.1M. America’s No. 1 doll definitely is crossing $300M this weekend,
The Barbenheimer phenomenon just keeps going. To wit: there is so much energy happening at international box office turnstiles that Tuesday’s grosses on Warner Bros’ Greta Gerwig-directed Barbie and Universal’s Christopher Nolan opus Oppenheimer were down just 1% from Monday. The offshore gross through Tuesday on Barbie is now $258.5M with global at $472.6M. As
Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz said last weekend’s blockbuster release of Barbie – the toymaker’s first-ever major theatrical film – is a moment that “will be remembered as a key milestone in our company’s history.” His comments came amid second-quarter numbers in line with Wall Street forecasts. “The Barbie movie is a showcase for the cultural
We knew Warner Bros’ Barbie and Universal’s Oppenheimer were going to be big — but not this big. Paramount’s Tom Cruise sequel Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One learned that the hard way (65% Weekend 2 decline with $19.3M) by going one weekend before the dual tidal wave, trying to avoid the wake of
When it comes to the road to blockbuster glory, some projects are willed, some happen instantaneously, while others go through a long development hell. That’s just what happens when you’re perfecting toward a hopeful billion-grossing title. In the case of Mattel’s Barbie, it was arguably a 14-year journey that began at Universal. It stands to
AMC Entertainment set a new post-Covid record for global admissions revenue this past weekend with Barbie and Oppenheimer leading a charge that drew 7.8 million moviegoers to theaters. Warner Bros/Mattel’s Barbie racked up $162 million opening weekend. Universal’s Oppenheimer stands at $82.4 million for a $300 million weekend at the domestic box office. For Imax, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer delivered a $35 million debut
Searchlight Pictures’ comedy Theater Camp held its own on a big weekend of box office coin flowing in from Barbie and Oppenheimer. Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman’s Sundance-winner (U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble) expanded to 10 markets/51 theaters, up from six locations in New York and LA opening weekend, taking in an estimated $266,000
While the Hollywood Studios and WGA and SAG-AFTRA are at a standstill in labor talks –streaming residuals being a big bone of contention– the theatrical side of the business exploded with Barbenheimer together grossing over $511M worldwide, $235.5M of that being domestic. Never before in the history of Hollywood movies have two films opened respectively
Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated and highly-reviewed Oppenheimer has begun overseas rollout with strong results versus some of the director’s previous titles. On Wednesday, the Universal film opened in 10 offshore markets, grossing $2.4M and led by France and Indonesia. These are early days as the critically-lauded Cillian Murphy-led biographical drama/political thriller will be playing a total
EXCLUSIVE: The box office event of the year which has Warner Bros. mass female attraction, Barbie, and Universal’s Christopher Nolan directed, Oppenheimer, has officially fired off its confetti guns with the movies seeing respectively an estimated $20M and $9M+ from their previews. Again, these numbers could fluctuate by morning. Even if Barbie falls short of
“You’re being managed on Barbie” was a snarky text I received last night, “it’s at least $130M.” The point of that is the projections out there for the Greta Gerwig directed feature take of the Mattel doll are indeed wild. Rivals were spotting $90M-$125M; Warners asserting $75M. Today, to support the crazy fever of moviegoing
At a time when the industry is suffering through historic dual strikes by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, the motion picture industry is poised to see an enormous weekend at the box office with Warner Bros./Mattel’s long awaited toy feature adaptation Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s World War II era three-hour adult drama Oppenheimer reaping a combined
What was it W. B. Yeats wrote, that line Joan Didion lifted and twisted in her essay “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” about West Coast chaos in 1967? Things fall apart; the center cannot hold. That’s how it felt on Thursday, a few minutes before lunch with some seasoned film executive-friends at the Academy Museum (Salad Niçoise
Vietnam has banned commercial screenings of Warner Bros’ Barbie due to a scene that depicts a map of the South China Sea with the “nine-dash line” that is contested by the Vietnamese government. The film, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was scheduled for release in Vietnam on July 21.