‘Barbenheimer’ Powered U.K. Box Office to $132 Million in August

Naman Ramachandran
·3 min read

The “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” phenomenon helped the U.K. and Ireland box office reach £104.8 million ($132 million) in August, per numbers from Comscore.

While this is significantly lower than the heights of £160.7 million in July, it is 67% higher than August 2022 (£62.9 million). Year-to-date, 2023 is currently running 10% ahead of the same period in 2022, a vast improvement from the low of -9% in early July.

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Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” remained the top film for the second consecutive month with £31.3 million, topping the chart every weekend in August and now has a total of £90.9 million. It is now the seventh-biggest film of all time, 2% above “Avengers: Endgame” (£88.7 million) and 3% behind Avatar (£94 million). It has also overtaken “Mamma Mia!” (£68.9 million) to become the highest-grossing comedy of all time in the territory. In Ireland, “Barbie” has surpassed the “Titanic” gross of €9.2 million($9.9 million) to be the country’s top-grossing film with €9.4 million.

Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” remained the No. 2 film for the second consecutive month. With an additional £20.7 million, the film now has a total of £54.4 million, making it the director’s third-best performing title of all time, behind “The Dark Knight Rises” (£56.4 million) and “Dunkirk” (£56.7 million). It is the third-highest grossing film of 2023 so far, 48% above “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3” (£36.7 million) and just behind “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (£54.7 million). Together, “Barbenheimer” has a market share of 65% of the total box office since they released on July 21.

The highest new opener of August was “The Meg 2” in third place with £11.9 million. It is 25% behind the lifetime total of “The Meg” (£15.8 million) currently. At No. 4 is “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” with £8.5 million. It is the second-best performing title in the Turtles franchise – 41% above Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows (£6 million) and 39% behind “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (£13.9 million).

At No.5 was “Elemental” with £4.1 million, grossing £17.3 million in total since its release in early July. It is the highest-grossing animated title for Disney since “Frozen 2” (£53.7 million) in November 2019. At No. 6, “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” collected £4.1 million in August for a total of £25.9 million, making it the best-performing title in the franchise, hurtling past “Mission: Impossible Fallout” (£24.4 million).

“Haunted Mansion” was at No. 7 with £3.5 million, “Blue Beetle” at 8 with £3.4 million, “Gran Turismo” at 9 with £2.5 million and “Strays” at 10 with £1.5 million.

There are a clutch of releases on Sept. 1, including Sony’s action film “The Equalizer 3,” starring Denzel Washington, Lionsgate horror “Cobweb,” while, after scoring a massive hit Stateside, Angel Studios is releasing “Sound of Freedom” and Mubi is bowing Ira Sachs’ acclaimed polysexual Parisian love triangle “Passages.”

Celine Song’s romantic drama “Past Lives” (Studiocanal) opens Sept. 7 and sequels “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3” (Universal) and “The Nun 2” (Warner Bros.) on Sept. 8. Kenneth Branagh’s “A Haunting In Venice” (Disney) bows Sept 15 and Craig Gillespie’s comedy-drama “Dumb Money” (Black Bear) and “Expend4bles” (Lionsgate) on Sept 22. The month ends with Gareth Edwards’ sci-fi “The Creator” (Disney) on Sept. 28 and Ken Loach’s “The Old Oak” (Studiocanal) and “Saw X” (Lionsgate) on Sept. 29.

U.K. and Ireland – Top 10 Titles of August 2023
(Aug. 4-31)

UK and Ireland – Top 10 Titles Year-to-date
(Jan. 6 to Aug. 31)

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