The BoxOffice Company, which handles online ticketing solutions for thousands of exhibitors worldwide, is reporting that Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” film is drawing the most pre-sales of any film this year since “Avatar: The Way of Water”.
That sequel debuted to $134 million in its opening weekend, whereas “Barbie” the estimates have been wildly varying – as low as $75 million and as high as $130 million, if not more. No one is quite sure what the results will be just yet.
That’s not all. The National Association of Theatre Owners (the other NATO) is reportedly estimating that more than 200,000 moviegoers are planning to attend same-day viewings of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” at theaters across North America.
That will come in addition to the millions of moviegoers globally planning to see both films on different days this weekend. The debut numbers of “Oppenheimer” are tipped to be in the $40-65 million range.
Combined with the second weekend of “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” and still going strong titles like “Sound of Freedom,” everything is on track for the domestic weekend box office in total to gross well above $200 million.
Since the pandemic began back in early 2020, the biggest total weekend at the cinemas was the opening weekend of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” with the entire box-office taking in $283 million. That record is likely to hold, but at least now it’ll have some nearby company.
Source: Deadline