Are movie theaters making a comeback? How 'Barbenheimer' boosted movie morale.

After three weekends in theaters, Greta Gerwig’s "Barbie" surpassed the $1 billion mark in global ticket sales. Gerwig became the highest grossing female director of all time, breaking a record previously held by Patty Jenkins, director of "Wonder Woman."

The highly anticipated paranoia thriller, "Oppenheimer" was directed by Christopher Nolan and released the same weekend as "Barbie." The two films collectively generated $244.5 million in North American ticket sales their opening weekend in theaters. “Barbie” brought in $162 million, followed by “Oppenheimer” at $82.5 million.

The Margot Robbie-led and produced film has been comfortably seated in first place since the film's release on July 21. 

Movie ticket sales are crawling back to pre-pandemic levels

According to The Numbers, a publicly available database of movie industry statistics, annual tickets sold for 2023 are expected to reach 922 million. That's compared to 2022, where total tickets sold reached 709 million. While 2023 ticket sales are not expected to surpass 2019’s pre-pandemic levels of 1.2 billion, they’re inching closer, partially in service to the global sensation that is "Barbenheimer."

Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Box Office Pro, said "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" drove a huge social conversation that went above and beyond the internet. The meme of "Barbenheimer" caught wildfire, Robbins said. “Everybody heard about it, and everybody outside of movie circles has been talking about it for the last few weeks.” The cultural phenomenon drove non-moviegoers to the theaters, breaking significant box-office records.

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'Barbie' smashes box office records

While “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is currently the highest-grossing movie of 2023 sitting at $1.35 billion, “Barbie” is projected to beat that record. “Barbie” not only had the biggest opening weekend of 2023, but it was also the biggest opening weekend for any movie directed by a woman.

Domestic box-office sales for "Barbie" and “Oppenheimer," combined were the fourth largest of all time for an opening weekend. The only bigger opening movie weekends were for “Avengers," "Spider-Man: No Way Home" or “Star Wars” films.

"Barbie" had the biggest opening week in history of any Warner Bros. film, raking in more than half a billion dollars.

“Barbie stands out as one of the very few female-centric, female-targeted blockbusters of the summer,” said Robbins. "The movie offered something fresh in a summer that’s been jam-packed with franchise sequels."

Young people are driving a movie-theater comeback

While movie ticket sales and box office numbers are not back to pre-pandemic levels, industry data shows that young people are behind the growing market of moviegoers. About 80% of the "Barbie" audience was younger than 35. And 65% of the audience was female, according to data from Box Office Pro.

“The audience driving this rebound has been young.” Robbins said. He pointed to “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” as an example of a film playing well to a younger audience.

The year-to-date domestic box office recently crossed the $6 billion mark. The last time this mark was hit in summer was in early July 2019, according to data shared by Robbins.

But keep in mind, with screenwriters and actors on strike, the movie industry is destined to feel the impact of delayed and or canceled production.