Old Greenbelt Theatre (OGT) had a blockbuster opening weekend of Barbie and Oppenheimer – or Barbenheimer, as the simultaneous release of the two films has become known online.
It’s unusual that two blockbusters were released simultaneously. Perhaps the films were expected to appeal to very different groups of theatergoers, suggests OGT Executive Director Caitlin McGrath. However, the juxtaposition of the polar-opposite movies was funny, clever memes proliferated online, “and then they leaned into it really hard and it became a double-header,” says McGrath.
An Arthouse Theater
OGT tends not to show as many mainstream films and particularly not on their opening weekend. The reasons are multiple but primary among them is that it’s an arthouse theater. In a way, Barbie and Oppenheimer are arthouse films that gained mainstream appeal and avoided being labeled as such by eschewing the festival circuit, getting a lot of press and avoiding alienating potential right-wing viewers. Barbie’s director, Greta Gerwig, creates indie films, which have been shown at the theater when they were released, including Lady Bird and Little Women. Christopher Nolan, the director of Oppenheimer, is known for Hollywood blockbusters, but also films with interesting structures and complex messages. Films he’s previously directed that have been shown at OGT include Tenet and Dunkirk. “Oppenheimer is an anti-war movie, but they wanted everyone to be interested in it so they marketed it as a movie about war. Barbie is about pink and girls and Barbie, but it’s really a critique of patriarchy,” said McGrath. “We were able to get them because we’ve always shown films by these directors.”
A Challenge
That said, bringing a blockbuster to a small theater on opening weekend is a challenge. “We have to push because we only have one screen, so they tend not to pay much attention to us,” said McGrath. However, she’s built relationships over time and per-screen OGT does well.
Theater Clearances
The theater has shown blockbusters in the past, like Top Gun, but it wasn’t able to show it opening weekend. Something called clearances usually shut out smaller theaters from mainstream commercial films. A practice known as “clearing” prevents the same film from being shown at theaters that are considered in competition with each other, usually through their geographical proximity. Beltway Plaza is less than five miles away. There, AMC Academy Theater has eight screens they can show a movie on while OGT has only one. When studios use clearances, it’s hard for smaller theaters to get a film they’re competing with others for. Though, for OGT, they tend to not want those mainstream productions. Sometimes, too, films go “limited” rather than “wide,” explained McGrath, and “if they’re limited, they open in locations like New York, L.A. and Chicago, followed by D.C. and Boston, for example, and how soon it opens in Greenbelt can depend if we’re classified as the D.C. area or not.”
At the Box Office
OGT held six shows of each movie over the weekend. By Monday, Barbie had grossed $4,847, Oppenheimer $4,245. On an average weekend good ticket sales at OGT would be closer to $1,000. How much of the weekend’s sales OGT gets to keep will depend on calculations involving how well the movies do nationwide; ironically, the better a movie does the less the theater gets to keep. Ten percent will go to the state as an Admissions and Amusement tax and about 60 percent of the remainder (depending on overall nationwide grosses) will go back to the studios. OGT will keep about 30 percent of its ticket sales.
Big Movies, Big Bucks?
Despite the long lines and packed seats, strictly in terms of ticket sales, the big movies aren’t highly profitable at the small theater because of the terms from the studios, said McGrath. The sale of concessions helps and certainly donations and memberships. “We’re a nonprofit because we can’t survive on ticket sales,” said McGrath. “Donations are really what keep us afloat.” The theater lost members during the pandemic and is still down over 1,000 that haven’t returned, thus drawing on the theater’s dwindling reserve funds.
For this past weekend, a series of unusual aspects to the two arty blockbusters and the way they were released all aligned to make them available and desirable for Greenbelt. “It’s unusual for studios to do it and it’s unusual for us to try to do it,” said a tired McGrath, of the double blockbuster weekend that Greenbelt was able to enjoy.
Both Barbie and Oppenheimer are currently scheduled to run through Thursday, August 3 at OGT.