EXCLUSIVE: The UK box office is booming thanks to Barbenheimer.
According to seven-day figures from Comscore, this past week is the highest ever recorded at the UK and Ireland box office, with £66,373,575 clocked from all movies between July 21-27.
The feat has been fueled by the Barbenheimer phenomenon, which has seen Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer catch the public’s attention like few film combos ever before. Both opened last weekend.
To achieve the milestone, this past week has overtaken the frame December 18-24, 2015 when ticket stubs totaled £58,618,154 thanks in large part to Star Wars pic The Force Awakens.
Barbie picked up an estimated £18.5M and Oppenheimer clocked £10.9M over opening weekend, the first time two films had opened to more than £10M each in the UK.
Mission Impossible was the third best performer over the past seven days and took £2.8M over last weekend but the vast majority of the week’s total UK box office came from Barbenheimer.
The stellar return was helped by the popularity of larger format presentations such as IMAX, which attract a higher price point than regular screenings.
Unconfirmed figures from UK cinema advertising organization Digital Cinema Media also suggest admissions for this past week were at a 10-year high, with cinemas on track to clock north of seven million admissions.
The previous record of 7.6M admissions was set in 2012 during the first-week of Sam Mendes’ Bond pic Skyfall. We can expect firm figures on admissions in the coming weeks.
The UK box office has been all Barbenheimer all week, with exhibitors reporting record highs. On Sunday Vue Cinemas said the two films helped the chain to its second-biggest weekend in history as moviegoers flocked in record numbers to catch the double bill. Vue said more than a fifth of all customers at its cinemas booked tickets to see both films. The chain also recorded over 2,000 sold-out sessions of Barbie.
Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, Barbie has clocked a thumping $528.6M globally through Wednesday, including $291.4M from international, and that’s after only one week of release. The film is now the biggest Warner Bros. offshore opening ever for a non-franchise film. The pic is also the largest-ever opening weekend for an original, non-franchise film at the UK & Ireland market box office.
At the same time, Christopher Nolan’s explosive biopic Oppenheimer has a strong global total of $265.1M through Wednesday. The offshore figure is $147.2M.
Both titles are performing beyond expectations and have been buoyed by strong responses from critics and audiences alike.
Both films also clocked records stateside, with Barbie recording the largest domestic opening of the 2023 year, besting Super Mario Bros.‘s $146.4 3-day weekend. The film is also Warner Bros.’s largest advance sales haul ever at $49.5M.
Andreas Wiseman contributed to this report.