Tullamore crowds throng to see Barbie and Oppenheimer on 'mental weekend'

Over last weekend the Greta Gerwig fantasy comedy 'Barbie' and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer hit the screens in Tullamore and the crowds are thronging.

Leah Tierney, manager at the IMC in Tullamore described the weekend as, ''mental'' and ''crazy'' ''It's even busy today'', (Monday July 24) she said.

A total of 2,855 people attended the films at IMC last weekend. Leah said they haven't seen anything like it since before the pandemic when Frozen 11 was on screens.

At the weekend Barbie was showing on four screens in the IMC and each one was sold out. Oppenheimer starring Ireland's own Cillian Murphy was also sold out.

Leah said some people attended both films on the same day. ''We had one group who came dressed in pink for Barbie and returned later in black for Oppenheimer.

She said Barbie was the busiest, mostly because there were more showings as it's a shorter film running for 113 minutes and 54 seconds while Oppenheimer is over three hours long.

''The Bridge Centre car park was completely full on Saturday night and parking was an issue for some'' she said.

''Barbie is getting good reviews. There is a message behind it in relation to mothers and empowering women. Some are saying it should be on the school curriculum,'' Leah said.

The gender breakdown for those attending Barbie is 80% women, mostly dressed in pink with the men being dragged along, while Oppenheimer is 60% men and 40% women, she said.

Leah has no idea how long both movies will remain at the IMC but she believes it will be the end of August at least.

She said Wednesday is the meal deal and then there is Crazy Thursday and teen clubs on Saturdays which are expected to draw even more crowds.

Barbie stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. Oppenheimer stars Cillian Murphy, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr and Emily Blunt.

Barbie earned €2,098,132 in the Irish box office last weekend while Oppenheimer has earned €1,134,634.

There are six showings of Barbie daily at the IMC and three of Oppenheimer and in case anyone is interested Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is also showing starring someone called Tom Cruise.