BEATRICE, Neb - It’s hard to think of another recent double movie release bigger than the releases of Barbie and Oppenheimer over the weekend.

The two shows generated over $235 million in the first days of showings and it’s kept movie theater owners like Mike Schafer busy, but he says, it’s a breath of fresh air after COVID did a number on theater attendances.

“It brings back memories before COVID,” Schafer said. “We were like this a lot before COVID, a lot. It’s slowly coming back, but it really feels good.”

Schafer is the owner of Beatrice Movies, located in the heart of Beatrice’s downtown. He tell NCN the more people that come in to see the shows, the better for the surrounding businesses as well.

“Summer time is our busiest time of the year, it drops off once school starts back up,” Schafer said. “It brings a lot of people to town and a lot of the other businesses will benefit from this also.”

As streaming services such as HBO Max, Netflix, and Amazon Prime grow, it leads people to stay in and watch the movies in their own homes. However, with the release of Barbie and Oppenheimer, it’s led people back to the theaters.

“Everybody wants to get out every once in awhile,” Schafer said. “So they go get a meal and dinner and a movie and this has brought back a lot of people that have been away for a long time.”

“Barbie”, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, brought in about $155 million in ticket sales over the weekend, while Christopher Nolan film “Oppenheimer”, starring Cillian Murphy brought in $80.5 million. With no signs of the “Barbenheimer” craze slowing down, Schafer says his staff remains ready.

“We have about 20 employees, all high school students, and they’re all very very good,” Schafer said. “Anytime I need extra employees, I call them up, see if they can come in and they’re always willing to do that.”