Barbenheimer Continues Box Office Dominance While ‘Haunted Mansion’ Doesn’t Scare Up Interest

Barbenheimer showed no signs of slowing down with Barbie and Oppenheimer continuing to bring in moviegoers. Even with Haunted Mansion coming in on the low end of expectations, the box office set a record for the last weekend of July with studios counting for grosses for all films at $217.4 million.

Per Deadline, Barbie maintained the top spot with a gross of $93 million, down just 43 percent from its huge $162 million opening. This is the best second weekend for Warner Bros., topping the $75.1 million sophomore frame for The Dark Knight 15 years ago. Barbie also became the fastest-female demo release to cross $300 million stateside in just nine days. The previous record-holder was the live-action Beauty and the Beast, which crossed the threshold in ten days.

The domestic total for Barbie now stands at $351.4 million but its success isn’t just on the domestic front. In 69 international markets, Barbie has grossed $429.3 million which brings its global haul now at $780.7 million. The holdover for Barbie overseas is also strong, dipping just 31 percent from the previous frame. $1 billion seems like a sure thing at this point and I’m not sure anyone would’ve saw that coming a few months ago.

Oppenheimer continued to entice adult audiences with a gross of $46.7 million, down just 43.4 percent from its opening weekend. For an R-rated film, the second weekend gross came in higher than other popular titles such as Logan ($38.1 million) and Deadpool 2 ($43.4 million). The current record-holder for the best second weekend is It: Chapter One ($60 million) but Oppenheimer’s hold this weekend is to be celebrated. Adult fare has had a rough go at it since the dawn of the pandemic era but this shows an audience will show up if the material is up to par.

Much like Barbie, Oppenheimer is also making a great showing overseas, down just 21 percent from its opening weekend. After grossing $77.1 million from 78 international markets, Oppenheimer brought its overseas gross to $231 million which brings its global haul to $405.6 million.

Debuting in third is Haunted Mansion with a gross of $24 million. 2003’s The Haunted Mansion opened slightly higher with a $24.2 million debut so this redo really didn’t move the needle all that much. Box office tracking had the film opening to $30 million so coming in below that figure will not make Disney all that happy.

None of this would be all that bad if the budget for Haunted Mansion wasn’t so high. It’s reported that the film cost between $150-160 million to make and that’s a figure the movie won’t see stateside. Some are saying not having the actors available to promote the project due to the SAG strike played a role in the film’s soft start while others think an October release would’ve been more ideal. It’s possible that interest wasn’t all that high to begin with and Disney shouldn’t have pumped so much money into the film because it’s going to be another loss for the Mouse House.

Dropping to fourth is Sound of Freedom with a gross of $12.8 million, down 35.4 percent from the previous weekend. The film continues to be a word-of-mouth hit with its target audience and has become one of the biggest surprises of the summer. To date, Sound of Freedom has grossed $149.3 million at the domestic box office.

Rounding out the top five is Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One with a gross of $10.6 million. That’s a drop of 45.2 percent from the previous weekend and while the Mission sequel is no Top Gun: Maverick at the box office, not going to call this one a total miss either. Domestic grosses might be underperforming but the Mission: Impossible franchise has always been more of a global performer and that is where the film continues to shine. To date, Dead Reckoning has grossed $139.1 million domestically and $448.4 million worldwide.

Another noteworthy debut outside of the top five is the A24 horror release Talk To Me, which debuted to an impressive $10.4 million. Reviews ahead of its release were solid with a glowing 94 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the film carried that buzz to an opening weekend that is A24’s biggest since 2018’s Hereditary ($13.6 million). That was another horror film with great reviews and big buzz so both projects have that aspect in common. It’s possible that Talk To Me will have considerable legs but it’s already ahead of the game as the film cost a mere $4 million to make.

Check back next week for most box office results and let us know your thoughts on how all the films performed this weekend.