At one of the country’s busiest multiplexes,Event Cinemas George Street in Sydney,they will dominate screenings on Saturday.Barbie has 20 sessions, Oppenheimer 17 andMI7 11;Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny,which has only been out three weeks,is down to just two sessions.

Even Palace’s art-house Pentridge Cinema in Melbourne will be dominated byBarbie’s 11 sessions andOppenheimer’s 10,supplemented by the Scandinavian Film Festival’s five.

“I don’t think we’ve seen for some time two big releases in the same week,” the chief executive of Hoyts cinemas,Damian Keogh,said. “So it’s exciting and they’re a very big contrast in who they’re going to attract.”

The industry is hoping at least one of the Big Three can break out like last year’sAvatar:The Way of Water(which took a phenomenal $93.7 million) orTop Gun:Maverick(close behind with $93.4 million).

Super Mario Bros is this year’s biggest hit so far,with just over half their takings ($51.7 million). So how successful can Barbenheimer be?

Based on early reactions,Keogh is predictingBarbie will take at least $30 million andOppenheimer $20 million to $25 million.

To take more,they will need to appeal outside their expected audiences - largely women and couples on dates forBarbie;males,Nolan fans and art-house cinema buffs forOppenheimer - and attract repeat viewings.

Boosted by a high-profilepromotional tour by Robbie,Gerwig and cast and all the tie-ins lined up by Warner Bros and toy company Mattel,Barbie has generated more than $1 million in ticket pre-sales at Hoyts alone - four timesOppenheimer’s early sales.

Benji Tamir,program manager for the Classic,Lido and Cameo cinemas in Melbourne and Randwick Ritz in Sydney,said they had sold 3,500 tickets for just previews ofBarbie.

“We’ve got a preview on Wednesday night and we’ve sold out entire complexes,” he said. “Everyone’s going to be dressed up and it’ll be pink,pink,pink.”

Tamir expectsBarbie to attract even young males who would normally prefer superhero or action movies.

“Based on the pop culture phenomenon it’s becoming,I think people are going to want to see it just to be in the conversation,” he said.

Given onlySuper Mario Bros,Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3andSpider-Man:Across the Spider-Versehave taken more than $25 million this year,cinema executives are hoping - possibly even praying - for a stronger second half.

Up to June 30,national box office was $480 million - down 5.7 per cent on the robust ticket sales in the first half of last year that were fuelled byTop Gun:Maverickand,in NSW,the state government’s Dine and Discover vouchers.

That was down 23 per cent on pre-pandemic box office that eventually reached $1.23 billion in 2019. But Keogh is expecting the Big Three and other promising movies will push ticket sales to 5 per cent higher than last year - close to,if not reaching,$1 billion.

For Tamir,box office is being driven by the quality of movies rather than any reluctance to return to cinemas.

“We’re still not where we want to be,” he said. “We’re on par with 2022 levels;that was 30 per cent less than 2019. With all the blockbusters and superhero films slated for this year,that’s been a little bit disappointing.

“But we still see,when the right film comes along,our audiences come out in droves.”

Tamir expects some movie-goers will watch Barbenheimer as a double feature.

“I think they’ll go forBarbie first – something light – then go for something more meaningful,” he said.

Hopes for cinema’s comeback have been tempered by actors joining screenwriters in striking in the US,which means Hollywood production is shut down and stars won’t be promoting movies that are already finished.

Keogh said that the Hollywood pipeline was already slowing,with one recent report showing there were 57 wide-release movies in the US in the first half of 2019 but only 45 in the same period this year.

Given rising ticket prices,a better guide to cinema’s strength is admissions,the industry’s measure for box office divided by average ticket price. According toScreen Australia,the 84.7 million admissions in 2019 crashed to 28.2 million in 2020 then jumped back to 57.9 million last year.

Even it’s up again this year,it will take a consistently strong line-up of movies in future to get it anywhere near the near-record 91.3 million admissions whenFinding Dory,Deadpool andRogue One:A Star Wars Story were packing cinemas in 2016.

Email Garry Maddox atgmaddox@smh.com.au and follow him on Twitter at@gmaddox.

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