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Barbenheimer

Barbenheimer ( BAR-bən-hy-mər) was a cultural phenomenon which preceded and surrounded the simultaneous theatrical release of two films, Warner Bros. Pictures' Barbie and Universal Pictures' Oppenheimer, on July 21, 2023. The strong contrast between Barbie—a fantasy comedy by Greta Gerwig about the fashion doll Barbie—and Oppenheimer—an epic biographical thriller by Christopher Nolan about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, scientific director of the Manhattan Project—prompted a comedic response from Internet users, including memes, merchandise and memorabilia. Polygon described the two films as "extreme opposites", and Variety called the phenomenon "the movie event of the year".

The simultaneous release was an instance of counterprogramming. As the release date approached, discussion centered on the appositeness of watching the films as a double feature, as well as in what order to watch them, instead of generating a rivalry. Cast members of both responded by encouraging audiences to watch the films on the same day. Celebrity participants included actor Tom Cruise, who purchased tickets to watch both while his latest film, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, was still playing in theaters. While the phenomenon began as a joke about the two films' seemingly endless differences, some media commentators have pointed out similarities; both films have been analyzed as exploring existentialism and the theoretical notion of the Anthropocene, each has an Academy Award-nominated director and screenwriter and a large ensemble cast, and both were produced by a husband-and-wife production company.

Both Barbie and Oppenheimer received critical acclaim and exceeded box-office expectations. Their joint opening weekend was the fourth-largest at the American box office, and both rank among the highest-grossing films of 2023. The phenomenon also extended to the year's awards season, in which both films emerged as leading contenders. The films earned a combined 21 nominations at the 96th Academy Awards. Both films were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, which Oppenheimer won.

History

Release date dispute

In December 2020, citing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cinema, 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, in what was nicknamed "Project Popcorn". This decision was heavily criticized the same month 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". Warner Bros. eventually backed off from the streaming-exclusive releasing plan for their feature films in March 2021.

Nevertheless, after Warner Bros.' initial plan, Nolan met with several rival studios, and announced in September 2021 that his next film, Oppenheimer, would be distributed by Universal Pictures instead of Warner. Conditions for making his next film with Universal included: a budget of $100 million, a marketing budget of equal size, creative control, 20% of first-dollar gross, a blackout period whereby the studio would not release another movie three weeks before or after release and, to ensure it would not land on a streaming service immediately, a 100-day theatrical window. The following month, Universal announced the July 21, 2023, release date for Oppenheimer. Warner Bros. had originally scheduled the Looney Tunes-related comedy Coyote vs. Acme to be released on the same date of July 21, but in April 2022, the studio announced that the film Barbie would be released on that date instead, having it directly compete against Nolan's film.

Nolan's disagreement with Warner was cited as the principal cause of this decision, with Insider speculating that the decision to release the long-in-development Barbie directly opposite Oppenheimer may have been revenge against Nolan for ending his collaboration with the company. The mid-July date was relevant, 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. 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. According to Margot Robbie, Oppenheimer producer Charles Roven called her and suggested they move the release date for Barbie, but she declined.

Nolan was reportedly annoyed by Warner Bros.' decision to schedule Barbie on the same date as Oppenheimer. Despite this, when asked by an Insider reporter 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 an IGN reporter that a "crowded marketplace" is "here and that's terrific".

Public reaction

The first known use of the term "Barbenheimer" was in a post on Twitter dated April 15, 2022, by Matt Neglia, editor-in-chief of the entertainment awards website Next Best Picture. The post made fun of the fact that both films seemed to be constantly announcing new cast members. Neglia later said he did not remember writing the post.

Use of the term gained pace in 2023, as Internet users noted the juxtaposition of the films and posted memes on Twitter. Fan-made posters for Barbenheimer circulated online. 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 other's 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.

A retired Boston University professor named Barbara Oppenheimer, a third cousin through her husband to J. Robert Oppenheimer, praised both films.

Marketing

The films' marketing differed greatly. Barbie's marketing, estimated to cost $150 million to Oppenheimer's $100 million, used a wide range of immersive partnerships and tie-in products. Oppenheimer took a more low-key approach, aiming to cultivate intrigue with trailers and an online countdown to the 78th anniversary of the first nuclear explosion.

Barbie held a premiere on July 12, 2023, in London, where Oppenheimer held another the next day; on July 14, SAG-AFTRA, an American labor union of film, television, and voice actors, declared a strike action, effectively halting any promotional event that involved any member in the guild. Barbie star Margot Robbie showed her support in the action when questioned by a Sky News reporter at the film's London event. Despite Oppenheimer's London premiere being moved up an hour early, the cast of the film left during the screening in support of the strike. SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher later claimed the studios "duped" the guild into accepting a 12-day-extension for negotiations to continue promoting summer films such as Barbie and Oppenheimer.

Double feature viewing

Many Hollywood personalities and Internet users have viewed the films as a double feature, with a debate on viewing order being part of the meme.

Margot Robbie, who portrays the titular character in Barbie, suggested watching Barbie, then Oppenheimer, and then Barbie again. President Barbie's actor in Barbie, Issa Rae, said that "If you see Oppenheimer last then you might be a bit of a psychopath." CNN Entertainment writer Scottie Andrew recommended watching Oppenheimer first and Barbie second, comparing it to "saving dessert for after dinner".

Counterprogramming

The Barbenheimer phenomenon is an instance of counterprogramming, a marketing strategy in which a tonally different film is released on the same day as a major film to appeal to an underrepresented group. Universal successfully deployed counterprogramming as early as 2002, when it opened the dramedy About a Boy opposite the science-fiction blockbuster 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.

BBC News observed the phenomenon occur during October 2013 when two very different Scotland set films, black crime comedy Filth, and romantic musical Sunshine on Leith open the same week in the UK. 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 Nolan's superhero film The Dark Knight (distributed by Warner Bros.) and the jukebox musical Mamma Mia! (distributed by Universal) on July 18, 2008. Actor Tom Cruise, producer and lead actor of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One which opened the week before the two films, fervently promoted his film over Oppenheimer and Barbie to erode Oppenheimer's three-week IMAX exclusivity window.

Barbenheimer has seen comparisons to the simultaneous release of the video game titles Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom Eternal on March 20, 2020, which prompted a similar online crossover phenomenon at the time. The trend also appeared with the series finales of the television series Nancy Drew and Riverdale, both of which aired on August 23, 2023, on The CW.

In light of Barbenheimer, other studios concocted similar events to their upcoming releases. This includes "Saw Patrol", named after Saw X and PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie released September 29, 2023, though this received a more mixed response. In an opposite of this move however, Universal moved The Exorcist: Believer up from its intended October 13, 2023, date to October 6 to avoid competing with Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour that was releasing the same day, thus preventing an "Exorswift" release schedule. and "Trollsgiving", named after Trolls Band Together and Thanksgiving released November 17, 2023, as the same day.

Reception

Box office

Projections

Going into their opening weekends, Barbie was projected to gross $90–120 million in its opening weekend, and Oppenheimer was projected to gross $45–50 million. Two weeks before their release, AMC Theatres announced that more than 20,000 AMC Stubs members had pre-booked tickets to both films on the same day, resulting in a 33% increase in double-feature tickets from July 7 to 10. On July 17, AMC announced 40,000 members had pre-ordered tickets. According to cinema chain Vue International, nearly one-fifth of people 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 and a slow seasonal film season.

The New York Times called the films' dual opening weekend "the last happy weekend for many months", as the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes would likely delay the release of films expected to be award-season contenders.

Gross

Both films exceeded box-office expectations. Barbie became the highest-grossing domestic release in Warner Bros history, surpassing Nolan's The Dark Knight. In the United States and Canada, 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. Including previews, the films made $70.5 million and $33 million on their first days, respectively, which led to weekend projections being increased to $160 million and $77 million. The films went on to debut to $162 million and $82.4 million, respectively. The Barbenheimer phenomenon was credited with boosting interest in the films, with a total of 79% of tickets sold over the weekend (52% for Barbie and 27% for Oppenheimer) being for the two films, a total of 18.5 million people. Additionally, Oppenheimer made $4.98 million from audience members who saw the film because their desired Barbie showtime was sold out. IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond described the weekend as a paradigm shift, referring to Oppenheimer bringing in $35 million from 740 IMAX screens. Oppenheimer saw the second-largest opening not to top the domestic box office, falling short of Inside Out's $90.4 million opening by a small margin. Barbie and Oppenheimer led the July 21–23 weekend to a total revenue of $310.8 million, making it the fourth-largest aggregate domestic weekend ever, behind the weekends led by the openings of Avengers: Endgame (April 26–28, 2019, $402 million), Avengers: Infinity War (April 27–29, 2018, $314 million), and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (December 18–20, 2015, $313 million).

Barbenheimer boosted box office values to their highest point since 2019 as part of a series of "unusual blockbusters". Summer 2023 film releases featured underperformances from franchise films, bucking a 10-year run of the highest-grossing summer movies being sequels. The Barbenheimer "jolt" arrived while the 2023 summer box office was 7 percent behind the 2022 season; by Labor Day, the U.S summer box office had reached $4.1 billion, 19 percent ahead of the 2022 box office by the same date.

Film industry reaction

Tom Cruise, whom director Steven Spielberg proclaimed had "saved Hollywood's ass" with the success of Top Gun: Maverick the previous year, referred to Barbie and Oppenheimer as a double feature in a Twitter post along with photographs of him and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One director Christopher McQuarrie with tickets to the two films. Similarly, Gerwig and Barbie star Margot Robbie were featured in photographs on the Barbie Twitter holding up tickets to Oppenheimer, as well as Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. 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". Director Francis Ford Coppola called the box office success of both films "a victory for cinema". Director Martin Scorsese called the event a "perfect storm" that offered hope for a "different cinema to emerge."

At the world premiere of Barbie in Los Angeles, Gerwig and Issa Rae praised the double feature concept. Rae said, "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 said she wants a Barbenheimer shirt signed by Murphy.

Japanese response

The Barbenheimer phenomenon sparked negative reactions in Japan, where Oppenheimer is seen as a controversial film due to its title character's association with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and was not screened until the following year, 29 March 2024. When the live-action Barbie film's official Twitter account (@barbiethemovie) reacted favorably to image designs created by fans that incorporated the mushroom cloud of and fire from an atomic bomb and punning "it will be a blast", it was met with heavy backlash within Japan. This was attributed to Japan's educational emphasis on the destruction caused by nuclear weapons, as the only country to have been attacked by them in an armed conflict. As a result, mushroom clouds and atomic bombs were considered inappropriate for casual or comedic usage. The timing of the incidents also coincided with the 78th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Barbie was also released in Japan on August 11, 2023, just two days after the 78th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki. A Change.org petition demanding an apology from the official Barbie Twitter account was launched, acquiring over 22,600 signatures. The hashtag #NoBarbenheimer trended on Twitter, with over 100,000 retweets. Some Japanese users made Barbenheimer-related memes referencing the September 11 attacks in place of Oppenheimer material to demonstrate their perspective on the atomic bombings, though this is widely viewed as having backfired due to many Americans' distaste for 9/11 humor.

The Japanese branch of Warner Bros. issued a statement of regret on July 31, 2023 (JST) through its own Twitter account for the Barbie film (@BarbieMovie_jp), condemning the actions of the U.S. headquarters and urging them to "take appropriate action." On the night of July 31, 2023 (PST), Warner's headquarters issued a statement to news outlets, writing that it regrets "its recent insensitive social media engagement" and that it "offers a sincere apology", and the Barbie film's American Twitter account reportedly began to delete the replies in question. Mitsuki Takahata, who provides the voice of Barbie in the Japanese dub of the film, voiced her disappointment on her Instagram account and stated that she had considered dropping out of a promotional event planned to take place on August 11, 2023.

Analysis

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 eager 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 opined that the Barbenheimer phenomenon was unprecedented, feeling that ordinarily, the simultaneous release of two significant films would have "cannibalized" each other, but in the case of Barbenheimer, would be "additive and complementary". He believes 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 draw a big audience on its opening weekend because its 'fear of missing out' factor "is going to be off the charts".

Writing for FirstShowing, Alex Billington compared how philosophical both films were, citing concepts present in each such as existentialism, Marcel Proust, and how both protagonists discover truth similar to Plato's Cave. Slavoj Žižek, in The New Statesman, argues that both films feature main characters that attempt to escape fantasy and uncover a deeper reality, only to discover that their reality itself is constituted in relation to fantasy.

Though the Internet joke began as a reference to the two films' seeming differences, some writers have pointed out similarities between them, including that "Nolan and Gerwig are both [Oscar-nominated] directors, both have huge ensemble casts of stars, and they are both produced by husband and wife production companies". Writing for The Escapist, critic Darren Mooney also found similarities between the two films, noting that both "are about the relationship that exists between imagination and reality, as well as about what happens when ideas begin to manifest themselves in the corporeal world. In both cases, the results are fundamentally terrifying, although the movies reach decidedly different conclusions." Sonia Rao of The Washington Post notes that the two films share a common notion: "The corruptibility of men". Also in the 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, ideas which might well outlive our species in the form of plastic and plutonium's lingering traces across our fragile planet."

Jake Coyle of the Associated Press analyzed the box office gross of Barbie and Oppenheimer and noted that their success may point to audiences wanting more originality in films, following "flopbusters" like The Flash and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, both of which became box-office bombs. Writing for IndieWire, Eric Kohn repeated the sentiment, "audiences want originality and invention, not endless sequels", suggesting studios would benefit from cultivating young, visionary directors at film festivals. Kohn also cautioned that rather than attempting to replicate Barbenheimer's success, studios would benefit more by considering why it can't be replicated.

Journalist Larissa Kuhnert from German newspaper Neues Deutschland attributed the success of the phenomenon to astroturfing. According to journalist Thomas Koch from the German magazine Wirtschaftswoche, the success of Barbenheimer is said to have been planned by Mattel Marketing.

Reviews

Of critics reviewing the double feature, an SFGate reviewer who watched Barbie first judged it to be the better film and "kinda hope[d]" Gerwig would make a film about Oppenheimer. An IndieWire reviewer who watched Oppenheimer first (with several audience members dressed in pink and one wearing a Barbenheimer T-shirt) said the films worked "decently" as a double feature. On the other hand, a reviewer in The Guardian who also watched Oppenheimer first compared the experience to whiplash and to "having your mother's funeral invaded by a flashmob of parking circus clowns". In a paired review in The New Yorker that criticized both films, Anthony Lane found similarity in performances that, in his opinion, threaten to overshadow the starring roles: "[J]ust as Downey [Robert Downey Jr., as Lewis Strauss] threatens to pull Nolan's film out of orbit, so, in "Barbie," does Gosling [Ryan Gosling, as Ken] attract a dangerous share of the dramatic energy". The review also noted that in both films, characters describe the premise of the film as "impossible".

Accolades

Variety and IndieWire projected both films to be Oscar contenders, including several categories which could pit both films against each other. Oppenheimer received the most nominations of any film that year with 13, ahead of Barbie's eight, overlapping in six categories: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design and Best Production Design. Oppenheimer would go on to win the most Oscars of any film that year, with seven, while the lone win for Barbie was for Best Song.

Both films led the nominations at the 81st Golden Globe Awards, with Barbie gaining a leading nine nods and Oppenheimer trailing with eight. Oppenheimer won five Golden Globes including Best Drama, Director and Actor, while Barbie won two, Best Cinematic and Box Office Achievement and Song. Both films also led the nominations at 29th Critics' Choice Awards with Barbie receiving a record-breaking 18 and Oppenheimer securing 13 nominations, tied for second-most with Yorgos Lanthimos's Victorian era black comedy Poor Things. Oppenheimer walked away with eight awards, the most of the night, including Best Picture and Best Director. Barbie secured six wins, including Best Original Screenplay and Best Comedy, and America Ferrera, one of the film's actors, received the #SeeHer Award. They also led the nominations at the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards, with both films receiving four nods.