Barbenheimer has broken the myth of a box office curse
The cinema business hasn't been the same since 2020. The success of Barbie and Oppenheimer suggests that's Hollywood's fault, not the pandemic's.
Rumours of cinema's demise appear to have been greatly exaggerated. Movie theatres took in USD4.54 billion ($6.96 billion) in July, according to Gower Street data, making it not only the biggest monthly box office haul of the post-pandemic era but 17% above July's average in the three years prior to COVID.
Barbie and Oppenheimer alone generated $1.07 billion of that take despite only being available for a third of the month. Barbie is the star of the show, becoming the 10th fastest flick ever to cross the $1 billion mark.
Come on Barbie, let's go party indeed.
Prior to the Barbenheimer phenomenon, a narrative was building that COVID was the beginning of the end for cinemas. In 2022, with social distancing a thing of the past, the US box office took in USD7.3 billion, 64% of 2019's USD11.3 billion. (For those with a morbid curiosity: 2020's haul was just USD2.1 billion.) The pandemic broke people's habit of going to the cinema, the argument ran, and the narrowing gap between a film's cinematic release and it hitting streaming services diminished the incentive to fork out $25 for a movie ticket and $15 for popcorn.
The success of Barbie and Oppenheimer, which generated $2 billion between them, as well as other 2022 standouts like The Super Mario Bros. Movie, presents a different theory: the public has tired of the superhero flicks and Disney live-action remakes that kept the pre-pandemic years aloft.
