Do you also see Barbie fans donning cute shades of pink to the theatres? Well, well, the Barbie fever is high! The “Barbie” movie, its press tour, and the history of the doll, all heavily include fashion and fans never keep themselves behind in the race of trends.
But that’s not all that is trending! On July 21, 2023, the most dramatic conflict in movie history took place. The most significant box office weekend of the year saw Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer squared off in theatres all across the world.
Both films include all-star ensemble casts and are helmed by well-known directors. The timing of their releases, with Barbie and Oppenheimer, respectively, coming out from Warner Bros. Pictures and Universal Pictures, has taken the online cinema community by storm and exposed a small-scale healthy rivalry between the two enormous studios.
If you’re a fan of films, you probably know what Barbenheimer is. For the uninitiated, the phrase is a combination of Barbie and Oppenheimer, two films that were out on the same day, July 21, 2023— one by Greta Gerwig and the second by Christopher Nolan. These two films inevitably rose to the top of the year’s most anticipated list. Oppenheimer is based on a true story of the physicist J Robert Oppenheimer who developed the atomic bomb. Barbie is a feminist take on the popular doll. It seeks to address the questions of perfectionism and beauty set by the matell doll.
According to sources, the two Hollywood films collected 100.6 crore nett in their first week of release in India. The intricately linked Barbie and Oppenheimer, collectively known as Barbenheimer, made 27.5 crore nett and 73.15 crore nett, respectively after seven days of release.
While many people have responded to both films with a comparable level of enthusiasm and have even organised a Barbenheimer day in which they would watch both films consecutively, not everyone believes that they are on an equal footing. Instead of being a double treat, some people regard this twofold release as a conflict.
The gift that keeps on giving is Barbenheimer. Barbie from Warner Bros now has a phenomenal $528.6 mn in worldwide box office receipts, including $291.4M from overseas. Barbie has become the highest-grossing female-led film of all time. It also has the largest opening for a female-directed film in the US, surpassing Captain Marvel’s $153.4 million.
Oppenheimer, meanwhile, has scooped up $241 million worldwide and received critical acclaim, with its cast, screenplay, and visuals coming in for particular praise.
If we go by the most recent Rotten Tomatoes ranking, Oppenheimer narrowly edges over Barbie, with a 94% to 90% critical score difference. The same can be true for the audience approval ratings on the website, with Barbie scoring 87% and Oppenheimer scoring 93.
Despite differences in critical reception and box office revenue, both Barbie and Oppenheimer have been incredibly successful, receiving positive responses from both critics and audiences. Their impressive box office earnings suggest that the impact of Barbenheimer on the cinema industry is likely to be significant.
The world is painted pink and black these days and the buzz around Barbenheimer is something you cannot afford to miss. So, what’s holding you back? Go celebrate the Barbenheimer Day, switch outfits between shades of pink and dark outfits and feel the barbenheimer vibes one after another!
