‘Barbie’ takes the box office crown and ‘Oppenheimer’ soars in a historic weekend

GMA Network honored as Best Employer at leadership congress & Awards 2023

KNOWN for valuing employees as their best assets, GMA Network Inc. was conferred with the Best Employer Brand Award at The Philippines’ Leadership Congress & Awards 2023 held last June.

“We would like to express our appreciation and gratitude to The Philippines’ Leadership Congress Awards 2023 for recognizing our efforts, and for making us a recipient of the Best Employer Brand Award. This will serve as an inspiration for us to stay true to being ‘Buong Puso Para sa Pilipino’ and to continuously uphold our core value of valuing our people, who are our partners in making GMA Network the leader in promoting the best in the Filipino,” says GMA Network First Vice President for Human Resources Development Department Atty. Gerrome Y. Apolona.

Photo shows (from left) GMA human resources department (HRDD) senior personnel manager Maria Rosalina B. Oregas, Advantage Club c0founder and COO Smiti Bhatt Deorah, and GMA HRDD senior benefits manager Rachel C. Mendez during the awarding ceremony.

For over 70 years, the leading broadcast network in the country continues to offer great professional opportunities to its employees, helping them realize their potential and find their career path. The company provides its employees with worldclass training, dynamic work environment, and competitive compensation benefits making it an employer of choice in the country.

The Philippines Leadership Congress & Awards 2023 is a prestigious event that recognizes companies for their outstanding contributions to Hr practices and employer branding.

By Lindsey Bahr The Associated Press

B‘ARBENHEIMEr” didn’t just work—it spun box office gold. The social mediafueled fusion of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer brought moviegoers back to the theaters in record numbers this weekend, vastly outperforming projections and giving a glimmer of hope to the lagging exhibition business, amid the sobering backdrop of strikes.

Warner Bros.’ Barbie claimed the top spot with a massive $155 million in ticket sales from North American theaters from 4,243 locations, surpassing The Super Mario Bros. Movie (as well as every Marvel movie this year) as the biggest opening of the year and breaking the first weekend record for a film directed by a woman.

Universal’s Oppenheimer also soared past expectations, taking in $80.5 million from 3,610 theaters in the US and Canada, marking Nolan’s biggest non-Batman debut and one of the best-ever starts for an r-rated biographical drama.

It’s also the first time that one movie opened to more than $100 million and another movie opened to more than $80 million in the same weekend. When all is settled, it will likely turn out to be the fourth biggest box office weekend of all time with over $300 million industrywide. And all this in a marketplace that increasingly curved toward intellectual propertydriven winner takes all.

The “Barbenheimer” phenomenon may have started out as good-natured competition between two aesthetic opposites, but, as many hoped, both movies benefitted in the end. Internationally, Barbie $182 million from 69 territories, fueling a $337 million global weekend. Oppenheimer did $93.7 million from 78 territories, ranking above Barbie in India, for a $174.2 million global total.

The only real casualty was Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part I, which despite strong reviews and a healthy opening weekend fell 64 percent in weekend two. Overshadowed by the “Barbenheimer” glow as well as the blow of losing its IMAX screens to Oppenheimer, the Tom Cruise vehicle added $19.5 million, bringing its domestic total to $118.8 million.

“Barbenheimer” is not merely counterprogramming either. But while a certain section of enthusiastic moviegoers overlapped, in aggregate the audiences were distinct.

Women drove the historic Barbie opening, making up 65 percent of the audience, according to PostTrak, and 40 percent of ticket buyers were under the age of 25 for the PG-13 rated movie.

“It’s just a joyous time in the world. This is history in so many ways,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros.’ president of domestic distribution. “I think this