Yeah, the Barbenheimer synergy has been crazy. It's not what I expected. Usually 2 bigger movies opening at once ends up hurting at least one of them but these two are playing off of each other nicely. It has to be due to how different they are in both tone and subject matter. They're not stepping on each other's toes.
I've been working on a theory that Barbenheimer is helping Oppenheimer more than Barbie. A 3-hr, R-rated, biopic about about a scientist usually wouldn't run the way it is. There's some Nolan effect going on but I think Barbenheimer is giving it a lot more legs than if it was released solo.
BTW, both had $100m budgets so they should both be in the black already!
I def think the Barbenheimer hysteria is helping Oppenheimer, but Nolan has now made himself the unquestioned big ticket director of his generation. And maybe the ONLY one left whose name alone is going to equal big box office without any IP needed. Almost as if his name is IP itself.
Even though Tenet was far down his usual quality for me, I’m betting that if it opened post or pre-pandemic, it probably takes in at least 200 million domestic and over 600-700 million overall. All numbers that would be pretty impressive for an original action SciFi flick.
Oppy might end up at 300 million. That’s unheard in today’s market for an adult R rated drama.
Hell, that’s pretty unheard of for yesterdays market also.