The success of Barbie and Oppenheimer at the box office has led to Vue International reporting its biggest weekend for UK cinema ticket sales since before the pandemic.

On Sunday, the cinema chain said a fifth of its customers had bought tickets to see both films in a double bill given the moniker Barbenheimer on social media.

More than 2,000 of Vue’s screenings for Barbie were sold out, according to the company.

The two films, released on Friday, have contrasting storylines with Greta Gerwig’s comedy about the famous doll and Christopher Nolan’s biographical thriller chronicling the physicist J Robert Oppenheimer’s role in developing the first atomic bomb.

The company said the comedy drama Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, would exceed ticket sales for Super Mario Bros and expected Oppenheimer to become the biggest film of the year.

Tim Richards, chief executive and founder of Vue International, said: “Vue saw its highest weekend admissions since Avengers: Endgame in 2019 with the release of Barbie and Oppenheimer, proving that when the movies are there our customers will come to watch them on the big screen.

“Barbie is tracking to become the biggest film of 2023 and has a good chance of getting into the Top 10 highest grossing films of all time.

“It is an incredibly exciting moment for the industry, and we expect this trend to continue for the coming weeks.”

In total, the cinema chain had more than 4,000 sell-out sessions across the country for both films.

It comes after cinema chain Odeon reported on Thursday that more than 200,000 advance tickets had been bought and more than 10,000 guests were expected to see both films during the opening weekend.

Universal Pictures said Oppenheimer, which stars Cillian Murphy and Florence Pugh, had made £8.05m in the UK and Ireland since Friday. The film production and distribution company said the biopic is on track to have a better opening three days than Nolan’s other blockbusters Dunkirk, Interstellar and Inception.

It comes during a problematic period for the industry due to the pandemic when many cinemas were closed for months on end in 2020 and 2021.

Last month, Cineworld, the world’s second-largest cinema chain, said its screens will remain open despite its plans to file for administration to reduce its debts of $5bn (£3.9bn).

The firm, which owns the Picturehouse chain in the UK, said it was still business as usual for its cinemas.

Cineworld filed for bankruptcy protection in the US last September.