Barbie Vs. Oppenheimer? One Takes The Lead At The Box Office — And It's Not Even Close

The biggest movie events of the year — "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" — were officially released Friday, with thousands of movie fans already purchasing tickets to both films. But, between the two blockbusters, one looks to be pulling ahead at the box office already.

"Barbie," made by Warner Bros Discovery Inc WBD, stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling and is expected to bring in around $110 million for its opening weekend, according to Forbes. Surprisingly, despite all of the hype around the movie, $110 million in the opening weekend would only be good for the fifth-highest in 2023, behind "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," Walt Disney Co.’s DIS "Little Mermaid" and "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," as well as "Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse."

Christopher Nolan’s "Oppenheimer" is projected to bring in less than half of the "Barbie" opening-weekend box-office revenue, at around $50 million according to Forbes. "Oppenheimer," like "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," was made by Univeral Pictures, which is owned by the Comcast Corporation CMCSA

This isn’t the first time that two big movies in wildly different genres have been released on the same day. In 2008, Nolan’s "The Dark Knight" Batman movie came out on the same day as ABBA-themed "Mamma Mia!".

In that instance, Nolan’s film outgrossed its fun and flirty counterpart, bringing in slightly more than $1 billion versus  $610 million for "Mamma Mia!".

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How To Watch: AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc AMC and other major movie theaters are seeing an increase in demand for tickets this weekend for the two films. "Oppenheimer" was filmed on 70mm film and is intended to be watched on a 70mm IMAX projector, but only 19 of those theaters are currently operating in the U.S.

Both "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" have been met with positive reviews, with 89% and 94% ratings, respectively, on Rotten Tomato. The New York Times called the Oppenheimer film a "brilliant achievement" and Time Magazine said "Barbie" was “very pretty, but not very deep.” 

Read Also: Tom Cruise's 'Mission Impossible' Falls Short Of Box Office Expectations: 'Industry Was Looking For Bigger'

Photos: Posters via IMDb