The Big Picture
- Despite a lackluster box office weekend, Gran Turismo beat Barbie for the top spot, though Warner Bros. claims to take the lead on a technicality.
- Sony included 9 days of previews in Gran Turismo‘s box office total, leading to the claim of an 11-day opening weekend.
- Both films were boosted by National Cinema Day’s discounted $4 tickets packing theaters across the country.
The summer’s box office may have been a thrilling one for exhibitors. However, the most recent weekend was one of the most underwhelming of a red-hot two-month period, but on the flip side of that, the weekend also provided a surprising bout of theatrics as two films claimed victory at the box office table, with Gran Turismo crossing the finish line ahead of Barbie, something that Warner Bros. took something of an issue with. Barbie grossed $15.1 million, $2 million fewer than the predicted $17.1 million that Warners had been anticipating. However, that could still have been enough to take the top spot, were it not for the fact that Sony, the studio behind Gran Turismo — which is based on a true story — included 9 days of previews in the box office total, attempting to claim the film had an 11-day opening weekend.
Warner Bros. has been unhappy with this, according to Deadline. However, they have previously pulled extended weekends like this too. Amidst the painful days of the pandemic, when theaters had just reopened, Warners factored in eleven days of screenings when it tallied up the $20 million opening “weekend” for Christopher Nolan‘s Tenet.
Equalizing the Playing Field
Sony is attempting to take a one-two punch next week following the release of Equalizer 3 on September 1, predicted to earn $30 million plus over its opening four days, alongside Gran Turismo. As for the official numbers themselves, Barbie‘s Sunday came in at $5.7 million, +6% over Saturday’s $5.4 million, while Gran Turismo‘s Sunday was $4.7 million, +15% over Saturday’s $4.1 million. Both film’s tallies were helped out by National Cinema Day’s $4 tickets, which assisted in boosting attendance in theaters across the country.
Blue Beetle, the DC film whose distribution is also being handled by Warner Bros. continued its disappointing run at the domestic box office with a second weekend of $12.2 million, which represented a 51% drop from its opening weekend. The film was undoubtedly hindered by the fact that promotion for it was completely hamstrung by the fact that its stars couldn’t take part in anything ahead of release.
Oppenheimer, Nolan’s follow-up to Tenet, continued its strong display, crossing the $300 million domestic mark for a worldwide tally of $777 million. It now looks guaranteed to pass Nolan’s Inception worldwide, having already done so domestically, which ended with a tally of $837 million in 2010, and will become the director’s highest-grossing non-superhero film, a remarkable achievement.
Barbie and Gran Turismo are both currently playing in theaters. Check out the trailer for Gran Turismo below.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
