Barbie beats Oppenheimer during opening weekend at the Australian box office
This weekend, the Australian box office made $34,074,128, up 134% from last week’s $14,550,007.
Warner Bros’ Barbie has well and truly arrived! Aussie fans were sent into a frenzy, joining queues of pastels and pink, downing raspberry frozen cokes and snacking on fairy floss, bringing in $19.5 million for its first weekend, 57.4% of the overall takings.
The incredible feat saw the film deliver the highest opening result of the year and the biggest since Spiderman: No Way Home was released in 2021. It has also been crowned the biggest opening weekend for a comedy film, beating out the 12-year-old record set by The Hangover: Part II. As Ken (Ryan Gosling — in possibly his best role yet) says, “sublime”!
The Margot Robbie-led film also amassed a whopping $501 million worldwide, breaking numerous records including the biggest opening by a female director (Greta Gerwig), the highest opening weekend for a non-sequel, non-remake, and non-superhero movie and earned the biggest opening weekend ever for a film based on a toy.
Given that it was the battle of hot pink versus the solemn grey during Barbenheimer weekend, Universal’s Oppenheimer also opened, coming in second — and it wasn’t even close — bringing in $9.4 million. Christopher Nolan’s film was also his biggest non-sequel opening and the second-biggest opening for a drama film in Australia.
Coming in at number three, Australia chose to accept their mission, heading to the cinemas to watch Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. The Tom Cruise-led action movie brought in $2.3 million Down Under for its second week in cinemas, down 59%.
Walt Disney’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny took just over $630k for its fourth week in cinemas, coming in at number four with a decline of 65%.
And finally, rounding out the top five was Walt Disney’s Elemental, which in its sixth week in cinemas, recorded $573k nationally, down 67%.
Falling out of the top five this weekend was Sony’s Insidious: The Red Door, Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Paramount’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Sony’s No Hard Feelings and Walt Disney’s The Little Mermaid.
#1 Barbie – $19,563,842
Barbie (Robbie) and Ken (Gosling) are having the time of their lives in the colourful and seemingly perfect world of Barbie Land. However, when they get a chance to go to the real world, they soon discover the joys and perils of living among humans. The movie also stars America Ferrera, Will Ferrell, Issa Rae and Kate McKinnon. The film grossed $19,563,842, averaging $25,474 over 768 screens.
#2 Oppenheimer – $9,401,462
During World War II, Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves Jr. (Matt Damon) appoints physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer and a team of scientists spend years developing and designing the atomic bomb. Their work comes to fruition on July 16, 1945, as they witness the world’s first nuclear explosion, forever changing the course of history. The film grossed $9,401,462, averaging $19,226 over 489 screens.
#3 Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One – $2,315,147
Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and the IMF team must track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity if it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and the fate of the world at stake, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than the mission — not even the lives of those he cares about most. The film grossed $2,315,147, averaging $5,759 over 402 screens.
#4 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – $630,437
Daredevil archaeologist Indiana Jones (Ford) races against time to retrieve a legendary dial that can change the course of history. Accompanied by his goddaughter, Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), he soon finds himself squaring off against Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), a former Nazi who works for NASA. The film grossed $630,437, averaging $2,081 over 303 screens.
#5 Elemental – $573,234
Elemental journeys alongside an unlikely pair, Ember (Leah Lewis) and Wade (Mamoudou Athie), in a city where fire, water, land and air residents live together. The fiery young woman and the go-with-the-flow guy are about to discover something elemental: how much they actually have in common. The film grossed $573,234, averaging $2,092 over 274 screens.