We still have another week to go before the end of the official Summer box office season, but the penultimate weekend is still one worth talking about. Nobody expects anybody to pop out and beat the magic that Barbie and Oppenheimer found themselves, but we did see a new winner take the stage, as well as some exciting numbers thanks to National Box Office Day. Gran Turismo is set to earn its first place with a commendable $17.3 million, with other impressive performances behind it. So, let’s dig into how the last August box office numbers are looking and what it all means for the rest of the year.
It’s no surprise that Gran Turismo took first place. The film, an adaptation of the Polyphony Digital racing video game, was expected to draw the gaming crowd. However, it is one of the many films impacted by the SAG-AFTRA strikes. This postponed the wide release of the film from August 11th until today. While a release date change can cause confusion amongst fans, it does seem like it helped Gran Turismo take first place, as Barbie made $33.8 million during the August 11th weekend. Still, Barbie follows closely behind Gran Turismo this weekend, with an almost too-close-to-call $17.1 million.
Barbie and Oppenheimer Keep Their Rightful Places In Top 5
Further behind Gran Turismo and the unsurprising Barbie success is Blue Beetle, the latest DC flick, which earned $12.8 million domestically in its second weekend. DC hasn’t impressed us much lately, but it is only a 49{81a086e50adc416cb06a533df9c9a0c5cefc9698f6906c0f4cbe2e77960b337a} drop from its first weekend, which isn’t too bad. And behind Blue Beetle is Oppenheimer, proving that Christopher Nolan keeps driving us to the theatres.
Domestic box office numbers benefited from National Cinema Day, where many theatres across North America offered cheap tickets and other discounts as an incentive for celebrating our love for movies. In fact, the day even called for special re-releases, including Jurassic Park, which earned $1.7 million. Not bad for a movie that came out 30 years ago.
What The Future Of The 2023 Box Office Holds After The Last of August
Sure, it’s exciting to see fan favorites like Barbie stay in the lead. Isn’t it going to get boring without some more competition? Unfortunately, Gran Turismo isn’t the only film seeing release delays due to strikes. Dune: Part Two, set to release this fall, will now release on March 15, 2024 instead. That leaves some independent films, some exciting horror movies, and some waiting-to-be-discovered gems for the next few months. However, when October hits and films like Killers of the Flower Moon start releasing, it’s really anybody’s game in the weekly numbers. The only thing that’s certain? Nobody is taking away Barbie’s crown for the 2023 domestic box office.
What did you see this weekend to boost those last box office numbers for August? Let us know in the comments!