GRETA GERWIG’S BARBIE movie earned €2,098,132 in the Irish box office this weekend, a bumper take greater than any opening weekend this year or last year.
Industry figures seen by The Journal show that Barbie’s weekend earnings are signficantly ahead of last year’s largest release, when The Batman earned €1.37 million over the course of its opening weekend.
The social media-fuelled fusion of Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s latest film Oppenheimer – known as Barbenheimer – saw many patrons attending both films on the same day.
The Cillian Murphy-fronted Oppenheimer also managed an incredibly impressive opening, earning €1,134,635 at the Irish box office this weekend.
With a run-time of three hours, over an hour longer than Barbie, fewer screenings of Oppenheimer are possible in theatres and it was therefore expected that Barbie would fill more seats.
By way of comparison, last weekend’s biggest movie in Irish cinemas was Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, which took in €625,640 for its opening weekend.
Both Barbie and Oppenheimer received the widest possible release across the country, with audiences packing into cinemas for a summer blockbuster weekend marked by standalone features instead of sequels.
The Light House in Dublin and its sister theatre Pálás Galway said today that both Barbie and Oppenheimer were sold out across the weekend, with a record 6,318 film fans attending in Dublin and 2,623 in Galway.
Alice Black, Head of Film Programming at Light House, said that customers dressing up to attend the features added to the sense of occasion.
“Whether it was staying up past midnight to see the first 35mm Oppenheimer or getting up at 8am for a Barbie breakfast or digging something pink out of the back of the closet, our customers and staff embraced these two films with gusto,” Black said.
“The sense of occasion was palpable in both our cinemas this weekend. This weekend reminded everyone of the pure joy of going to the movies”.
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