In the battle of the bomb vs. the bombshell, asks ‘Variety’, why not both?
Plenty of moviegoers are making the decision to watch Christopher Nolan’s atomic drama ‘Oppenheimer’ and Greta Gerwig’s colourful romp ‘Barbie’ on the same day when the two tentpoles hit theatres on July 21, reports ‘Variety’.
With two weeks to go until the big day, AMC Theatres, the world’s largest cinema chain, is reporting that more than 20,000 AMC Stubs members have purchased tickets to watch ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ on the same day.
Though it was apparently significant enough for AMC to issue a press release, notes ‘Variety’, it’s hard to contextualise the statistic because there aren’t a lot of comparable data points for guests purchasing tickets to see multiple movies on the same day — at least not ones that are publicly available.
The total number of AMC Stubs members, which includes A-List, AMC Stubs Premiere and AMC Stubs Insider, is unclear. Adam Aron, CEO of AMC, said in early 2020 that there were between 900,000 and 1 million A-List subscribers, which starts at $19.95 per month.
On paper, as ‘Variety’ points out, it may not at all seem like these films are catering to similar audiences. ‘Oppenheimer’, starring Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt, is a dark and gritty three-hour-long story about the American theoretical physicist who led the efforts to build the weapons of mass destruction that ended World War II.
‘Barbie’, led by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is a neon-hued fantasy comedy about Barbie-Land expats Barbie and Ken, who go on a quest of self-discovery in the real world.
According to early tracking quoted by ‘Variety’, ‘Barbie’ is expected to outpace ‘Oppenheimer’ in inaugural ticket sales. But there’s a chance that Tom Cruise’s big-budget sequel ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’, which opens on July 12, could end up again in the top spot on domestic box office charts over the weekend.