Barbie x Oppenheimer Day 1 box office collection: Who's the winner?

Both Barbie and Oppenheimer were released on the same day, i.e., July 21, 2023. During the countdown phase, fans formed Team Barbie and Team Oppenheimer. However, this entire rivalry was good sport, and both films were highly anticipated. This rivalry was given the term "Barbenheimer," and it became a popular internet phenomenon.

While both films have performed extremely well at the box office so far, one managed to earn more than the other. Barbie became the top movie in North America with an earning of $70.5 million in total. The film earned $22.2 million from Thursday's preview ticket sales and then $48.2 million on Friday.

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Barbie has earned more than Oppenheimer at the box office so far

Even though Barbie has earned more than Oppenheimer so far, there is no doubt that the latter has created a major dent in the box office. Deemed one of the best films made in recent years, the epic biographical drama earned a total of $33 million on its opening day.

Out of these earnings, $10.5 million came from Thursday previews alone. The film is being shown in 3,610 locations across North America. It certainly looks like it is going to become one of the most successful R-rated films of recent times.

Barbie has not only bested the Christopher Nolan directorial but also has a chance of becoming the biggest opening weekend ever for a film directed by a woman. Captain Marvel earned $153 million in 2019, and Wonder Woman earned $103 million in 2017.

In a recent interview with WBUR, Barbie's director, Greta Gerwig, explained what gave her the idea to create the film. She said,

"I'm interested in how life is complicated and messy and that there is nothing that's either or, either good or bad, but it's mostly it's both. It can be all these things at once. And I think that felt like a rich place to start from."

She continued,

"I want the movie to make people feel somewhat relieved of the tightrope. We ask ourselves — not just as women, men too — that we walk this impossible tightrope of being perfect."

She ended her statement by saying,

"Barbie has always been a symbol of this thing that you could never reach because she physically couldn't stand up if she were a human being. So I wanted it to almost invert that formula and find a way that it gave you permission to just be yourself and know that that's enough."

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Oppenheimer synopsis

The official synopsis of the film reads,

"Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer is an IMAX®-shot epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it. The film stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Emily Blunt as his wife, biologist and botanist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer."

It continues,

"Oscar® winner Matt Damon portrays General Leslie Groves Jr., director of the Manhattan Project, and Robert Downey, Jr. plays Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Academy Award® nominee Florence Pugh plays psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, Benny Safdie plays theoretical physicist Edward Teller, Michael Angarano plays Robert Serber and Josh Hartnett plays pioneering American nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence."

The film was produced by Emma Thomas, Charles Roven, and Christopher Nolan.