Op has broken all IMAX records at the Melbourne Imax here (smashing Force Awakens). First available session is on August 1st and most sessions are selling out through August as well.

https://imaxmelbourne.com.au/session_ti ... ?movie=476

Cultural firestorm! Forget the flops, Hollywood is back bay bay!

I am not surprised. So its not just about OW. Its going to have great legs. Universal Rave its getting will help for sure.

It’s nutz! these 2 movies

The public is clearly saying they don't want endless sequels to dusty franchises anymore. Films about things with pre-existing popularity is fine--Mario and Barbie are self-explanatory, Oppenheimer taps into people's endless fascination with nuclear weapons--but no more sequels. I think with the WGA/SAG strike and these two films (three if you add Mario) eclipsing everything else this year in terms of buzz, reception and it seems like box office, Hollywood may be entering something of a new era.

My level of "Mother of God" will be if Barbie does $125m+ and Oppenheimer does $75m+. I know both appear to be very likely at this point, but still... these marks would be crazy high either way.

this forum should restart the rule for this weekend that Mark is the only one who create the numbers threads as the numbers trickle in

1 Barbie $170M
2 Oppenheimer $85M
3 Sound of Freedom $30M
4 MI7 $21.9M -60%
5 Elemental $6.7M -26%

Top 5 here would be $313.6M. Total box office could be at about $340M.

Just from these numbers above, would rank #2 of all time I believe on the biggest domestic weekend list (behind April 26-28, 2019 at $402,087,399 total with Avengers Endgame).

Just got out of Barbie. Very, very interested to see how it does in terms of legs. Exciting weekend!

This uncertainty makes me want to see it way more.

But alas, I shall only be doing an 845 Oppenheimer tomorrow. Barbs will have to wait.

Yes, it certainly looks like it.

Another possible box office stat that could shatter: according to the Numbers, only two of the top 50 biggest weekends of all time did not have a single sequel or prequel in the top 3: March 22-24, 2012 (#46) and June 29-July 1, 2012 (#48). So, barely even in there. But if Sound of Freedom out-grosses Dead Reckoning, then this weekend will easily smash that record, and if the top 2 reach the high end of expectations then it's going to be near the top of that list overall, again without any sequels in the top 3!

That's a cool stat! I also like that this weekend could be spread out. Most of the "biggest weekends" ever were driven by 1 movie like Endgame. There's a chance Barbie doesn't have more than 55% or 60% share of total box office though too early to tell. Original movies serving underserved audiences are driving the box office craze this weekend while long run franchises were essentially rejected by moviegoers the past few weeks.

Crazy that Elemental has a great chance to pass Indiana Jones on a weekend basis this weekend

The contrast of people standing outside the theater at the end of the night was quire the sight. Giggling and making tik toks v shell shocked and slowly walking back to their cars.

Final predicts
B - 170
O - 80