Barbie & Oppenheimer Help Break Another Box Office Record In Their Second Week

We are now entering the final day of the second weekend of "Barbenheimer," and it appears that both films are twin fountainheads of a rising box office tide. Deadline reports that this weekend is set to go down as the best last July weekend in box office history to date, with a total of $217.4 million for all major releases.

That's including not just the well-established blockbusters "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer," but also Disney's "Haunted Mansion" – with an estimated $24 million North American opening weekend — and A24's sleeper-horror-hit-in-the-making "Talk to Me," with $10 million. Also, additional holdovers like "Sound of Freedom" and "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One" are still pulling in respectable numbers at the box office.

With the new releases trailing behind the holdovers, it might seem strange that this would be the best final July weekend of any summer blockbuster season, but the previous record-holder was being led by a movie in its second week too: the 2019 live-action rendition of "The Lion King." This weekend is a 34% spike compared to that previous record, and it's an improvement of a staggering 122% compared to this time last year. 

The summer of 2019 was, of course, the last blockbuster season before COVID swooped in and did seemingly irreparable harm to the theatrical exhibition model. And yet, this weekend's box office surge seems to indicate that harm wasn't so irreparable after all. The only trouble is, the movie industry is currently facing a dual strike from both SAG-AFTRA and the WGA.

"Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" are both box office phenoms, and the list of records they're taking down between them grows longer every day they remain in theaters. Greta Gerwig's "Barbie," for instance, had a $155 million opening weekend — the best ever for a movie directed by a woman. And the double feature phenomenon known as "Barbenheimer" is making box office history on multiple fronts as well.

Optimistically, the incredible box office numbers being reported now might give studio bosses the motivation they need to come to terms and work on movies and TV shows can resume. Audiences are clearly eager to show up to theaters in pre-pandemic numbers, at least for original movies and those based on characters and properties that haven't already been grist for the movie mill, which makes the prospect of a long-lasting strike even more heartbreaking for anybody who wants to see the business prosper.