A plastic doll has achieved what the superheroes of Marvel, the white humor family comedies of Santiago Segura and an octogenarian Indiana Jones did not. ‘Barbie’ fills Spanish cinemas as before the pandemic, when the theaters registered their best marks of the decade. Released on Thursday, July 20, the film directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling has surpassed 700,000 viewers this weekend of heat and elections, becoming the best premiere of the year. In four days it accumulates 6.8 million euros, exceeding all the expectations of its distributor, Warner Bros.
In second position in the box office we find another of the titles of the year, ‘Oppenheimer’, the particular biopic about the father of the atomic bomb directed by Christopher Nolan and released by another ‘major’, Universal. It exceeds 3 million euros in collections, contributing to the fact that this past weekend more than 1.6 million viewers went to the cinema, the best attendance data since November 2019, before the coronavirus entered our lives.
‘Barbie’ has transcended the category of film to become a sociological phenomenon. The marketing campaign has turned out to be as clever as the film itself, a sharp feminist satire that goes beyond the assignment to promote the doll from toy giant Mattel. Its potential audience is ageless: it ranges from girls to adult viewers. In the days of Netflix and HBO, going to the movies has to be an event. And social networks are bustling with people dressed in fuchsia pink, who are photographed in the rooms.
“The fight now is to get people out of the house, and there titles and promotion are essential”
Luis Gil
Federation of Spanish Cinemas
What could be a mere fad on Instagram and Tik-Tok has translated into movie tickets. ‘Barbie’ has grossed more than any other film this year in its opening weekend, including the tenth installment of ‘Fast & Furious’, which amassed €5 million. In the middle of the summer holidays, its behavior is also expected to be extraordinary during the week, with peaks in the viewer’s day, and it is likely that it will exceed 20 million at the box office at the end of its commercial career, while ‘Oppenheimer’ could stay at 15. There is even a term to define the beneficial battle between Gerwig and Nolan’s films: ‘Barbenheimer’.
With 155 million dollars achieved in the United States and Canada, ‘Barbie’ is also the best opening of the year in that market and the most successful directed by a woman. While the doll sweeps with 337 million dollars worldwide, ‘Oppenheimer’ has to settle for 174 million globally. Their tight budgets for what is fashionable in Hollywood – ‘Barbie’ cost 145 million dollars and ‘Oppenheimer’ 100 – contribute to their producers rubbing their hands.
“This weekend’s box office data is relevant and very encouraging,” certifies Luis Gil, general director of the Federation of Cinemas of Spain (FECE). “The public responds when there are attractive titles and investment is made in promotion, because it is essential that the films that can be enjoyed in the cinema are known.”
Related News
The association that represents 85% of the theaters in the country missed that investment in promotion from which ‘Barbie’ has benefited. “We trust that, seeing these results, the films will be promoted again to generate the effect of bringing people to the theaters.” Little by little the influx to cinemas is recovering: in 2022 it grew by 45%, reaching 61.2 million viewers and a box office of 379 million euros. But it is still 40% below pre-pandemic levels. The pull has come from the hand of two atypical films, such as ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’.
«They are two particular films in their genre and there could be doubts about their impact. The reality of the box office has surprised us for the better and encourages us for the recovery to accelerate and the pre-pandemic figures to once again be a tonic in the sector, “says the FECE spokesperson. When the confinement arrived, the theaters enjoyed the best collections of the last decade. After the break and the change of habits for the platforms, its mission now is to return to work as before. «The cinema was alive despite the hundreds of epitaphs written. The pandemic came to a sudden stop, restarting the sector takes time but the data shows us that it is possible,” confides Luis Gil, who certifies that, with the masks buried, the fear of going to the movies “has disappeared.” “The fight now is to get people out of the house, and that is where titles and promotion are essential, because the public sometimes has the feeling that films are not being released.”
#Barbie #returns #fill #theaters #pandemic