Barbenheimer

File:Barbie Doll 2011 (cropped).jpg

Barbara Millicent "Barbie" Roberts and Julius Robert "Oppie" Oppenheimer

Barbenheimer is an internet phenomenon that began circulating ahead of the simultaneous theatrical release of two blockbuster films diametrically opposed in genre, Barbie and Oppenheimer, on July 21, 2023, in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and several other countries. The word is a portmanteau of the films' titles. The contrast between Barbie—a lighthearted fantasy comedy by Greta Gerwig about the fashion doll Barbie—and Oppenheimer—a dark, gritty epic biographical thriller by Christopher Nolan about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, which developed the first nuclear weapons during World War II—provoked a comedic response from Internet users. Polygon described the two films as "extreme opposites", and Variety called the phenomenon "the movie event of the year".

Initially a rivalry, the Barbenheimer phenomenon became an internet meme about an instance of counterprogramming. Many suggestions to watch the films as a double feature emerged as their release date approached – as well as what order to watch them in – and performers in both responded by encouraging audiences to watch the films on the same day. Celebrity participation in this trend included American actor Tom Cruise, who bought tickets to see both while his own film, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, was still scheduled to play in theaters. Upon release, Barbie received positive reviews, while Oppenheimer received critical acclaim.

History

Background

Further information: Oppenheimer (film) § Development, and Barbie (film)

In late 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic which impacted the cinematic industry, WarnerMedia, the then-parent company of Warner Bros. Pictures, announced it would release all 17 of its upcoming 2021 films exclusively on its streaming service, HBO Max. This decision was heavily criticized in December 2020 by director Christopher Nolan, whose films had been distributed by Warner Bros. since 2002's Insomnia. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Nolan said, "Some of our industry's biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service." He also said that Warner Bros. "[doesn't] even understand what they're losing", and that the "decision [made] no economic sense".

As a result, after meeting with several studios, Nolan announced in September 2021 that his next film, Oppenheimer, would be distributed by Universal Pictures instead of Warner. The following month, Universal announced the July 21, 2023, release date for Oppenheimer.

As announced in December 2020, Warner Bros. originally scheduled Coyote vs. Acme to be released on the same date of July 21, 2023. However, in April 2022, what now became the subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery by that point, announced that the film Barbie would be released on that date instead, having it to directly compete against Oppenheimer. Nolan's disagreement with Warner Bros. was cited as the principal cause, though newly-appointed Warner Bros. heads Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy later stated that they wished to reconcile with Nolan; box office experts questioned why Warner refused to move Barbie's release date if they wished to restore relations with Nolan.

Insider speculated that Warner Bros.' decision to release its long-in-development Barbie film opposite Nolan's preferred release weekend of mid-July may have been revenge against Nolan for leaving Warner Bros.; beginning with The Dark Knight and with the exception of Interstellar (which was released in early November 2014, as distributed by Paramount Pictures in the United States and Canada, and by Warner Bros. internationally) and Tenet (which was delayed from the original release date of July 17, 2020, following the COVID-19 pandemic), Nolan's films have been released in mid-July.

Nolan was reportedly annoyed by Warner Bros.' decision to schedule Barbie on the same date as Oppenheimer. Despite this, when asked by Insider whether his split with Warner was indeed the cause of Barbie's release date, Nolan laughed and said he was "not going to answer that question", adding that theaters now have "a crowded marketplace with a lot of different movies [...], and those of us who care about movies are thrilled about that". When asked about the films sharing the same release date, Nolan told IGN that a "crowded marketplace" is "here and that's terrific."

Barbie and Oppenheimer

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Fan-made posters for the Barbenheimer phenomenon have circulated online. The pictured poster, created by Sean Longmore, has gone viral on Twitter.

The Barbenheimer phenomenon is an instance of counterprogramming, a marketing strategy where a tonally different film is released on the same day as a major film (in this case, Warner Bros.' Barbie in contrast to Universal's Oppenheimer) to appeal to an underrepresented group. Universal successfully deployed counterprogramming as early as 2002, when it opened dramedy About a Boy opposite the science-fiction sequel Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. The former enjoyed the strongest opening for a British film that year, finishing with over $130 million.

Men's magazine GQ observed the phenomenon occurring in the holiday season, such as Avatar: The Way of Water and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish in 2022, and compared summer to an "all-or-nothing bloodsport". In 2022, counterprogramming occurred with the summer films Top Gun: Maverick and The Bob's Burgers Movie, in which the latter is a smaller film than the former, allowing for such a dynamic.

The release date of Barbie and Oppenheimer drew parallels to the same U.S. release date of the superhero film The Dark Knight—directed by Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan about DC Comics' Batman, and distributed by Warner Bros.—and the jukebox musical Mamma Mia!—based on the stage musical of the same name featuring the songs of ABBA, and distributed by Universal—on July 18, 2008. Actor Tom Cruise—who produced and stars in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)—fervently promoted his film over Oppenheimer and Barbie in order to erode the former's three-week IMAX exclusivity window, while using the latter to show his film on non-IMAX screens.

Internet users noted the juxtaposition of the films and posted memes on Twitter. Shirt designers on Etsy began creating merchandise based on the Barbenheimer phenomenon. Early versions of these shirts directly used the wordmarks of the films and placed them side-by-side, while later versions used a Barbie-inspired "Barbenheimer" wordmark. Several tweets referenced the Sherbet Homes in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, side-by-side homes noted for one's black demeanor and the others pink appearance.

Two Dallas video editors made US$14,400 selling Barbenheimer shirts. Businesses have also posted about the phenomenon; a Barnes & Noble store in Olympia, Washington presented a "Barbeinheimer [sic] Starter Pack" on TikTok, accruing 30,000 likes.

Double feature viewing

A mashup of the wordmarks of the two films, similar to designs used for fan-made merchandise.

Many Hollywood personalities and Internet users have viewed the films as a double feature. Writing for Den of Geek, Chris Farnell detailed the merits of both viewing orders. Farnell argued that watching Barbie then Oppenheimer "will leave you upset, confused, and more aware than ever that your existence could be snatched away at any moment by forces totally outside of your control." He concluded that moviegoers should watch Wes Anderson's Asteroid City (2023), Oppenheimer, and Barbie, in that order, asserting that audiences will have a better understanding of Asteroid City's closing message after watching Oppenheimer and Barbie.

Reactions

Box office

Projections

While Barbie is projected to gross $95–125 million in its opening weekend, Oppenheimer is projected to gross $45–50 million. Two weeks prior to their release, AMC Theatres announced that over 20,000 AMC Stubs members had already pre-booked tickets to both films on the same day, seeing a 33% increase of people buying double feature tickets from July 7 to July 10. On July 17, they revealed that this had doubled to 40,000 members. According to cinema chain Vue International, nearly a fifth of audiences who bought a ticket for Oppenheimer also bought a ticket for Barbie. The Barbenheimer phenomenon helped boost box office revenue, which was still recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gross

Barbie grossed $22.3 million in Thursday night previews, while Oppenheimer grossed $10.5 million. This was the first time two movies released in the same weekend have grossed more than $10 million each in their previews in 2023.

Title	Budget	Gross			Ref.
		U.S. and Canada	Rest of the world	Worldwide total
Barbie	$145 million
Oppenheimer	$100 million

Film industry reaction

Tom Cruise referenced the phenomenon in his Twitter post in which he held up tickets to Barbie and Oppenheimer with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One director Christopher McQuarrie and referred to the two films as a double feature; Cruise has financially supported the theatrical box office industry following the success of Top Gun: Maverick and director Steven Spielberg's proclamation that Cruise "saved Hollywood's ass". Gerwig and Barbie star Margot Robbie also joined Cruise's film marathon, and held up tickets to Oppenheimer. Cruise plans to watch Oppenheimer then Barbie. At the premiere of Air, actor and Oppenheimer star Matt Damon told Vanity Fair that audiences are "allowed to go see two movies in a weekend".

At the world premiere of Barbie in Los Angeles, Gerwig, along with Issa Rae, further supported the double feature concept, with Rae stating "I love that there's solidarity though where people tried to pit us against one another but now it's turned into like a double-feature situation". In an interview with La Vanguardia, Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy endorsed the phenomenon, saying "My advice would be for people to go see both, on the same day. If they are good films, then that's cinema's gain." At the London premiere for Barbie, Robbie stated she wants to have a Barbenheimer shirt signed by Murphy.

Analysis and commentary

The Economist observed that the "two films encapsulate some of the caprices of the modern movie industry", with Barbie being an IP-driven film projected to gross twice as much (in its opening weekend) as Oppenheimer, a standalone film. The paper also concluded that, in the advent of the increased nuclear anxiety following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and developments around the nuclear arsenals of China and North Korea, audiences are less willing to see a realist drama film such as Oppenheimer than they are willing to see an escapist comedy film such as Barbie, recalling similar instances of the dynamic in American film history. Senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian of Comscore had opined that the Barbenheimer phenomenon was unprecedented, feeling that ordinarily, the simultaneous release of two major films would have "cannibalized" each other, but in the case of Barbenheimer, would be "additive and complementary". He also elaborated by saying that the phenomenon would attract a wide demographic, with older audiences hearing about Oppenheimer through review pieces and listening to the radio, while Barbie would attract a big audience on its opening-weekend as he felt the "FOMO factor is going to be off the charts for Barbie".

Though the Internet joke began as a reference to the two films' seeming difference, some writers have pointed out crucial similarities. In an article for The Washington Post, Tyler Austin Harper wrote that both films explore the theoretical notion of the anthropocene, the geological epoch defined by humanity's impact: "Despite their apparent differences, both Barbie and Oppenheimer tell the story of core ideas of the 20th century: accelerating militarism and unbounded consumption," Harper writes, "ideas which might well outlive our species in the form of plastic and plutonium's lingering traces across our fragile planet."

See also

• Twin films – Similar films released at the same time

Further reading

• Bahr, Lindsey (July 14, 2023). "The story behind Barbenheimer, the summer's most online movie showdown". Associated Press. Archived from the original on July 17, 2023. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
• Frank, Jason (July 7, 2023). "The Dawn of Barbenheimer". Vulture. Archived from the original on July 9, 2023. Retrieved July 9, 2023.
• Ocampo, Josh; Dargis, Manohla (July 21, 2023). "'Barbenheimer' and a Film Critic's Perspective, in Review". The New York Times. Retrieved July 21, 2023.
• Pulliam-Moore, Charles (July 11, 2023). "Barbenheimer is just the beginning of this year's summer blockbuster season". The Verge. Archived from the original on July 17, 2023. Retrieved July 11, 2023.