THB #356: The BarbenHeimer Math

Oppenheimer works with Barbie via AI

There is a physics to the movie business… physics which is being abused on the regular these days by people trying to explain BarbenHeimer to themselves and in the case of media, to the world.

The reason I sat down to write this is that I am intrigued with the phenomenon of this week and, I expect, at least another week or two to come. I am interested in trying to break down the financial benefits and potential problems that come out of having a pop phenom gross over $150 million in its opening weekend and a serious fact-based drama opening to over $80 million in that same weekend.

Could - in a fantasy world - there be a better way of releasing these two films? Or is the combination primarily what is driving a the unexpected first-weekend super-success of these two films, both of which would surely have opened well had the phenomenon not occurred?