‘Barbenheimer’ rakes in almost £30million at the UK box office as Vue hails ‘biggest movie weekend’ since the Avengers: Endgame hit screens in 2019 as millions of fans flocked to cinemas for monster five-hour film marathon

The release of Barbie and Oppenheimer gave Vue its ‘biggest movie weekend’ since Avengers: Endgame was released, the cinema chain’s boss said today as the new releases netted £30 million in ticket sales in the UK.

The company, which has 91 cinemas in Britain, said a fifth of its customers had bought tickets to see both films in a double bill dubbed online as ‘Barbenheimer’.

And the UK Cinema Association, which represents cinema operators, said Barbie and Oppenheimer have already generated nearly £30 million at the box office in Britain.

Vue International CEO Tim Richards hailed an “absolutely extraordinary weekend” for the company with more than two million people watching Barbie alone.

About 2,000 of Vue’s screenings for Barbie sold out, while the chain had more than 4,000 sold-out sessions nationwide over the weekend. The company added that Saturday’s heavy rain had also helped boost box office earnings.

The two films, released last Friday, have contrasting storylines, with Greta Gerwig’s comedy about the famous Barbie doll and Christopher Nolan’s biographical thriller about physicist J Robert Oppenheimer’s role in developing the first atomic bomb.

Barbenheimer also brought moviegoers back to U.S. theaters in record numbers—better than forecasts and encouraging hope against the backdrop of strikes.

Mr Richards, who is also the founder of Vue and chairman of the British Film Institute, told BBC Radio 4’s Today program this morning: ‘It was an absolutely extraordinary weekend. We knew it was going to be a big weekend.

“What this past weekend proved is that our customers have never left us after the pandemic, it’s been a supply problem and we need movies. If you watch this past weekend, it was the biggest movie weekend since 2019 when the Avengers Endgame was released and that was the second biggest movie of all time.

“We had over two million people just seeing Barbie on weekends — and it’s not just Barbie, it’s not just the big tent poles. They’re also smaller movies – black and white movies like Belfast, adult comedies like Ticket to Paradise, every customer, every demographic, has returned. We just need more movies. We are very optimistic about the future and this weekend proved it.’

Vue’s largest sites for Barbie were Cambridge, Glasgow St Enoch, Leeds Kirkstall, Cwmbran, Islington, Bolton and Portsmouth.

The company said the movie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, will surpass ticket sales for Super Mario Bros. and Oppenheimer to become the biggest movie of the year.

Mr Richards said Pixar film Elemental, Tom Cruise offering Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones finale Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny also got a bump this weekend, helped by the inclement weather.

Asked about the context of the ongoing strikes in Hollywood, Mr Richards added: ‘The timing is unfortunate but the stakes are very high on both sides and we hope for a swift resolution of the strike.

“But thankfully all the summer movies, Barbie, Oppenheimer, Mission Impossible, Guardians of the Galaxy and so on have all been marketed and released and the 2023 movies are all finished.

“So we’re in pretty good shape now for the summer and for the rest of the year and hopefully the resolution will be finalized in the next two months.”

He said Barbie now has “a good shot at being in the top 10 highest grossing movies of all time.”

And, when asked about what people are spending at the cinema during the cost of living crisis, Mr Richards said: ‘We are very concerned and very aware of what our customers have been through, especially with the high inflation over the last 12 months – and we have done our very best not to pass on our higher costs to the customers.

“Now if you look across the country, we have £4.99 tickets available at half of our locations across the country to try and help our customers. But what we’re seeing is a pretty healthy, even significant, increase in concession spending. And I think our customers will be able to treat themselves even more after the pandemic.”

Odeon reported last Thursday that more than 200,000 tickets had been purchased in advance and that more than 10,000 guests would see both films during the opening weekend.

Universal Pictures said Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy and Florence Pugh, has made £8.05 million in the UK and Ireland as of Friday.

The film production and distribution company said the biopic is on track to open three days better than Nolan’s other blockbusters Dunkirk, Interstellar and Inception.

In the US, Barbie claimed the top spot with $155 million (£120 million) in ticket sales from North American cinemas at 4,243 locations, surpassing The Super Mario Bros Movie and every Marvel film this year as the year’s biggest opening and the first weekend record for a film directed by a woman.

Oppenheimer also exceeded expectations in North America, taking in $80.5 million (£62.6 million) from 3,610 cinemas in the US and Canada, marking Nolan’s biggest non-Batman debut and one of the best starts for an R-rated biographical drama.

It is also the first time a film has opened to more than $100 million (£77.8 million) and another film has opened to more than $80 million (£62.2 million) in the same weekend.

It is expected to be the fourth biggest box office weekend of all time in the US with over $300 million (£233 million) industry-wide.

The Barbenheimer phenomenon may have started as a benign competition between two aesthetic opposites, but both films seemed to benefit.

Internationally, Barbie earned $182 million (£142 million) from 69 territories, fueling a $337 million (£262 million) global weekend.

Oppenheimer earned $93.7 million (£72.9 million) from 78 territories, higher than Barbie in India for a worldwide total of $174.2 million (£135.5 million).

The only real victim was Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part I, which fell 64 percent in weekend two despite strong reviews and a healthy opening weekend.

Overshadowed by the Barbenheimer glow and the blow of losing its Imax screens to Oppenheimer, the new Tom Cruise movie added $19.5 million (£15.1 million), bringing its domestic total to $118.8 million (£92.4 million).