One movie is bursting with life-size doll houses and blowout parties. The other tells the story of the deadliest weapon in human history. One has major movie stars — Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling — while the other has the lesser-known Cillian Murphy in the title role. But the two wildly incongruous Hollywood mega movies have one thing in common: After a string of Bollywood duds, Barbie and Oppenheimer have both taken the box office in India by storm. Branded “Barbenheimer” by the internet, it is expected to be a magnet drawing people back to theatres. The initial enthusiasm has lived up to the hype, as both movies together have sold over 400,000 tickets across top multiplex chains in the country. “We are expecting above average occupancies for both the films,” says Gautam Dutta, co-CEO, PVR INOX. “Our IMAX screens across the country are fully booked for the entire weekend. Our big screen formats like P[XL], BIGPIX are contributing to our first day occupancies of over 60%.” That’s a big deal in the month of July which is supposed to be a dry month for movie exhibitors in India. On a consolidated net box office basis, the two Friday releases can expect to do `120-140 crore at the box office over the next week or so, say experts. Oppenheimer, exhibitors say, has shown bigger promise with 360,000 in pre-sales on BookMyShow vis a vis Barbie’s 91,000. It is predicted to open among the Top 3 Hollywood films of 2023 in India. As per trade platform Sacnilk, with over 42% occupancy, Oppenheimer is expecting `15 crore in Day 1 net collection to Barbie’s `8 crore. Barbie might have had a slight setback also because of Mission Impossible 7, the other big Hollywood release (July 12) running into packed houses. BookMyShow said that 8% of the transactors for Oppenheimer also booked tickets for Barbie. FE
