• by Wayne Friedman , July 30, 2023

Warner Bros.' “Barbie” and “Universal Pictures' "Oppenheimer" continue to bring in major record-breaking domestic box-office revenue results for the second week of their respective releases.

The light, fun, and entertaining “Barbie” posted another eye-opening performance at $93 million, according to Comscore, while the dark, serious and brooding “Oppenheimer” came in at $46.2 million. 

"Barbie" has had one of the strongest second weekends for any theatrical movie ever, according to analysts. Week One of the movie produced an outstanding -- and surprising -- $162 million at the box office.

"Oppenheimer" is the second-fastest film ever to reach $80 million on the IMAX global network.

Cumulative domestic box-office revenue has rocketed to $351.4 million for "Barbie," while "Oppenheimer" is at $174.1 million for two weeks of release.

The global results are even more impressive, with "Barbie" at $774.5 million and "Oppenheimer" at $400.4 million.

Even more unusual is that both movies saw very little attrition week-to-week. 

Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst of Comscore, says revenue for both movies was much better than average for Week Two of their respective releases -- particularly for "Oppenheimer," which had a 44% drop -- a "minuscule" decline for the docu-drama -- while "Barbie" was down to a "mere" 43% week-over-week. 

With major press coverage focusing on "Barbie" around its box-office performance, Warner Bros. spent  a modest $638,600 in national TV advertising for its second week, according to estimates from EDO Ad EnGage.

Total TV campaign spend is now at a still modest $11.3 million in value -- paid/and promotional TV ads -- for 3,830 airings, and 1.7 billion impressions.

The top three networks for “Barbie” for its campaign were ABC at $1.6 million, Fox with $1.4 million and NBC at $1.1 million.

Warner Bros. also used its sister TV networks to a lesser degree: HGTV ($613,200), TNT ($585,550), and Discovery Channel ($373,700), among others.

For "Oppenheimer," Universal didn't take its foot off the gas -- putting down another $4.4 million for total paid and promo-related national TV messaging activity. This is now at a whopping estimated value of $32.7 million -- 6,460 airings resulting in 3.8 billion impressions.

Of the nearly 6,500 messages, Universal placed 4,840 “Oppenheimer” commercials on NBCUniversal’s sister TV networks . EDO Ad EnGage estimates almost half of that $32.7 million value in national TV paid/promotional messages came from its NBCU networks -- $14.9 million, so far.

Looking at other movies: Walt Disney’s debuted “Haunted Mansion” this past weekend -- a title that riffs off of one of its popular theme park attractions -- taking in $24.2 million in box-office revenues.

The fourth week of Angel Studio’s “Sound of Freedom” took in a steady $12.4 million -- now totaling $148.9 million domestically.  

Comscore says 2023 is up 20% versus 2022 to $5.8 billion season-to-date through July 30. However, the domestic box office is still down 17% versus 2019 -- the last pre-pandemic year -- according to IMDb Box Office Mojo.