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 $260M+ global start. Barbie, which has presales far exceeding that of Disney’s Little Mermaid ($95.5M) has a crazy range of projections stateside, from $90M-$125M.
Warners is safely calling for $75M at 4,200 theaters, but rivals are confident this doll of a comedy starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling will have gorgeous receipts.
Worldwide, Barbie is eyeing around $165M, $60M-$65M from 69 offshore markets including France and Korea among majors on Wednesday, followed by Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia and all of Latin America on Thursday, and then the UK and China on Friday.
Meanwhile, Universal’s first Nolan feature, boldly dated on the same weekend as the toy story from the filmmaker’s former studio, Warner Bros.,is looking at $40M-$50M domestic in 3,600 theaters, with another $45M abroad for a near $100M global start at the high end.
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