Sony’s Gran Turismo toppled Barbie at the domestic box office but was met with some stipulations from Warner Bros. heads.
This weekend’s box office was a wild race! All eyes were on the racing debut of the video game-based film Gran Turismo versus the cultural phenomena known as Barbie. While it seemed like Barbie would hold out the top spot at the domestic box office for its sixth weekend, it fell short to Gran Turismo. However, Warner Bros. were not going to let the accounting methods used go due to some early sneak peeks 9 days in advance of last Friday’s official release.
Reviews for Gran Turismo were mixed from reviewers with a fairly positive 61% “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes, leading some to believe that it was not going to be a real contender to topple Barbie. Despite that, Neill Blomkamp’s film had thorough marketing for months, and the advance screenings definitely helped. The “based on a true story” premise really amplified and grounded the briskly-paced film. It grossed a global total of approximately $53.8 million and $17.3 million domestically. Warner Bros. contended that $5.3 million came from the preview showings and should not be counted toward the domestic box office numbers reported.
Sony was under flak for its last video game-based movie, Uncharted, which had twice the budget of Gran Turismo ($60 million). Archie Madekwe played the lead character of the unbelievably real race car driver, Jann Mardenborough. Mardenborough had beaten nearly 100,000 entrants in the gaming competition and scored the chance to drive for Nissan at the Dubai 23 Hour Race in 2011. The film also starred David Harbour (Stranger Things), Orlando Bloom (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) and Djimon Hounsou (Shazam! Fury of the Gods) in supporting roles.
Barbie came in second with $17.1 million domestically, making the domestic total from the previous weeks up to $594.8 million. It has taken in $745.5 million in the foreign markets for a global total of $1.340 billion off of an estimated budget of $155 million. It is very close to becoming the new title holder for the highest-grossing film of 2023 since The Super Mario Bros. Movie is at $1.36 billion.
Third place went to Blue Beetle with $12.76 million for a new domestic total of $46.3 million. It has taken in $35.5 million at the foreign box office for a global total of $81.8 million. Then, Oppenheimer landed in fourth place with $9 million for a new domestic total of $300.02 million. It has taken in $477.17 million overseas for a global total of $777.19 million, now making it number four on that list of highest grossers of 2023. It has pulled ahead of Fast X, The Little Mermaid, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
There is some speculation that when the actual totals are, but it could be announced this morning that Barbie may end up taking the top spot from Gran Turismo. National Cinema Day was on Sunday, August 27, so those numbers could affect the final tally for the domestic weekend box office. We will just have to wait and see. Surprisingly, the raunchy comedy Bottoms made $516, 254 from only ten cinemas! The reviews have been raving, with some calling it the comedy of the year. The Equalizer 3 will be hitting theatres this weekend, as Denzel Washington’s vigilante film trilogy hopes to go big.
