It is almost fall, but it still seems like the summer movie season has a little time yet to go before we jump into the doldrums that lie in between the blockbusters and the late-fall/early-winter Oscar bait. Oh, wait a minute, perhaps there is no difference between the two, because this year Barbenheimer were two of the biggest summer films and are also the two top contenders for Oscars.
For the first time in 20+ years, the top 3 movies of the year are *not* sequels. https://t.co/HB3UUp1Xma
— /Film (@slashfilm) September 6, 2023
For the first time since 2001, the top three box office performances all came from first-time films that are not sequels to previous hits. Number one is, of course, the phenomenon that has been Barbie. As of today (Sept. 20, 2023), Barbie has brought in $626 million domestically and $791 million internationally for a worldwide total of $1.418 billion. That also puts Barbie at #11 on the lifetime domestic gross list, just behind 2015’s Jurassic World.
'Barbie' Outpaces 'The Avengers' as 11th-Highest Grossing Domestic Release in History https://t.co/3AYwaDfQKD
— Variety (@Variety) September 17, 2023
Number two is the animated The Super Mario Bros. Movie which has brought in $574 million domestic and $787 million international, for a worldwide total of $1.362 billion. That places it at #15 on the all-time domestic box office list (not adjusted for inflation), falling in-between Incredibles 2 and the 2019 Lion King remake. (I refuse to call it the live-action remake as it isn’t – it’s just a photo-realistic animated remake…)
To me, the unexpected hit of of the summer was Christopher Nolan’s biopic Oppenheimer which was the Number Three movie for the year with a domestic take of $319 million and an international take of $593 million, for a global total of $913 million.
As Dune director Denis Villeneuve put it in an interview with Variety, this success was a huge surprise because, “It’s a three-hour movie about people talking about nuclear physics.”
Denis Villeneuve knew #Oppenheimer was a "masterpiece," but he never thought it would gross over $900 million: “Where it is right now has blown the roof off of my projection. It’s a three-hour movie about people talking about nuclear physics.” https://t.co/dzvZRaq7Rm
— Variety (@Variety) September 20, 2023
Villeneuve went on to talk about how Oppenheimer also helped remind people why they go to theaters to see movies: “There’s this notion that movies, in some people’s minds, became content instead of an art form. I hate that word ‘content….’ That movies like Oppenheimer are released on the big screen and become an event brings back the spotlight on the idea that it’s a tremendous art form that needs to be experienced in theaters.”
One of the reasons Oppenheimer did so well is the it brought in more than $179 million from large-format IMAX screenings. (I did not get to see it on an IMAX screen, but I did get to see it on a premium-quality theater with a giant screen and sound system.)
Domestically, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 out-performed Oppenheimer, but they did not have near the same international interest.