‘Barbenheimer’ arrives as moviegoers flock to a Mattel-mushroom cloud double feature
NEW YORK — Waves of pink-clad moviegoers passed under cardboard palm trees on the frenzied first day of “Barbenheimer.”
After a feverish drumbeat propelled forward by a mushroom cloud of memes, the most anticipated day on the year’s movie calendar finally arrived as “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” — two movie opposites brought together by cross-marketing fate — landed in theaters.
“I think it’s the contrast,” said Lucy Ruiz, 17, as she and a friend made their way into the first showing of “Barbie” on Thursday at the Alamo Drafthouse in Yonkers, New York. “If you want to do both in the same day, it’s like two sides of the same coin.”
Chris Pizzello, Associated Press
From left, Gabrielle Roitman, Kayla Seffing, Maddy Hiller and Casey Myer take a selfie Thursday in front of an "Oppenheimer" movie poster before they attended an advance screening of "Barbie" at AMC The Grove 14 theaters in Los Angeles.
For Ruiz, the second half of her “Barbenheimer” would have to wait. “Maybe next week,” she said of seeing “Oppenheimer.”
But many are flocking to see both on opening weekend. The National Association of Theater Owners says some 200,000 moviegoers in North America have booked same-day tickets to each movie. The movie of the summer has turned out to be not “Indiana Jones” or “The Flash,” but a double feature.
“I don’t think I’ve seen anything like this,” says Michael O’Leary, president of the theater association, who compared the phenomenon to a sold-out Taylor Swift concert tour. “But while that’s an amazing special event that captures the cultural attention, it’s not accessible to everybody the way these two movies are. This is a phenomenon open to everyone, regardless of where they live.”
As of Friday, it was already clear “Barbenheimer” had morphed into the movie event of the year.
The collision of Greta Gerwig’s bright satire of the Mattel doll and Christopher Nolan’s three-hour opus on J. Robert Oppenheimer, the so-called father of the atomic bomb, wasn’t cannibalizing ticket sales for either but fueling excitement for the most jarring and color-clashing of movie weekends.
Studios forecasts had hovered around an $80 million opening weekend for “Barbie” and about $40 million for “Oppenheimer.” But it’s likely that both will greatly exceed those totals, and maybe even — especially in the case of “Barbie” — double them.
Warner Bros. said Friday that “Barbie” took in $22.5 million in Thursday previews, the best such tally of the year and a clear sign that the film will easily sail past $100 million for the weekend. Universal Pictures’ “Oppenheimer” notched $10.5 million in preshow ticket sales, a likewise strong start.
“Barbenheimer” is poised to be not just a viral trend but a box-office behemoth. For a movie industry that still hasn’t entirely recovered its pre-pandemic footing, it’s a much-needed jolt of moviegoing joy in a summer season where many of the top releases have fallen shy of expectations. Overall sales on the year are running about 20% below the box-office pace of 2019.
Chris Pizzello, Associated Press
Advertisements for the films "Oppenheimer" and "Barbie" appear Thursday at AMC The Grove 14 theaters in Los Angeles.
As much as the “Barbenheimer” fanfare has been driven by internet fascination, it’s in many ways an old-school movie weekend. Both movies are roundly acclaimed, original works by two of the best filmmakers working today. “Oppenheimer” has been hailed as a masterpiece; in my review, I called it “a kinetic thing of dark, imposing beauty.” The Associated Press’ Jocelyn Noveck called “Barbie” “brash, clever, idea-packed (if ultimately TOO packed) and most of all eye-poppingly lovely.”
For some moviegoers, “Barbenheimer” is their first blush with the once common practice of catching a double feature. Jack Robinson, 17, had tickets to see both movies with friends Saturday. He planned to don a suit for “Oppenheimer” before changing into pink for “Barbie.”
“I used to go to the movies a lot with my family and friends before corona happened. I’m very excited,” said Robinson. “It’ll be interesting to not leave the movie theater. Usually, it’s like bathroom and go home.”
Vianney Le Caer, Invision via Associated Press
From left, America Ferrera, Simu Liu, Margot Robbie, Issa Rae, Ryan Gosling and Greta Gerwig pose attend the film 'Barbie' on Wednesday in London.
In recent years, theater owners have often bemoaned not having enough films in the marketplace as streaming made inroads and studios increasingly concentrated their release schedules on fewer but bigger films. But “Barbenheimer” points to the possible reward when a varied group of films collective rise the box-office tide.
“Barbenheimer” may have momentarily eclipsed last week’s top film, “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” — which, despite Tom Cruise’s lobbying, is losing IMAX screens to “Oppenheimer” this weekend. But having three big movies in close proximity to one other, O’Leary said, “is a good problem to have.”
“It’s certainly preferable to the alternative,” said O’Leary.
Parrot Analytics found that global demand for the casts of each film — all of whom have been publicly enthusiastic about seeing their rival movie — grew at virtually the same rate between late April and mid-July. The audience demographics are almost opposite one another. “Barbie” is appealing to a largely female and younger audience, while “Oppenheimer” is most popular with males and those over the age of 30, Parrot found.
Yet in a much-divided America, “Barbenheimer” has been the great pop-culture unifier of 2023. There is harmony in contrast.
“I’m doing ‘Barbie’ first and then ‘Oppenheimer’ because I know ‘Oppenheimer’ is going to be something I have to digest,” says Jill Kupnick of Brooklyn.
Movie theaters are catering to the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon with double feature tickets and plenty of “Barbie”-themed promotions of candy and cocktails. But most are programming their own “Barbenheimer” days. Freelance writer Kelsey Weekman called it “the closest we’ve come to having school spirit week as adults.”
“I have a friend who has outfits picked out and knows how she’s styling her hair,” Krupnick says. “There’s a level of play involved that you rarely see in more mainstream cinema. It’s more common with Marvel movies or in the fantasy genre than something like this.”
-
‘Barbenheimer’ arrives as moviegoers flock to a Mattel-mushroom cloud double featureLanKS // Shutterstock
Debating the Academy Awards is a pastime that dates back to at least the discovery of the Africus monolith in "2001: A Space Odyssey."
One need look no further than when "Crash" beat out "Brokeback Mountain" for Best Picture in 2006—in a shocking upset—as a common example of controversial Oscar wins. Then there's Rami Malek winning Best Actor in 2019 for his performance as Freddy Mercury in the widely panned (but financially successful) "Bohemian Rhapsody" as another example of what some thought to be a confounding Academy choice. And who could forget when Roman Polanski landed a Best Director win for "The Pianist" in 2003 despite not being able to come to the ceremony due to an outstanding warrant for statutory rape.
It's hard to find a consensus on anything related to the Oscars (except, perhaps, that last year's slap is now a widely recognized cultural moment etched into the annals of Hollywood). But there is one area that can be analyzed to divine some sense of agreement: the data behind critical reviews of Oscar nominees. And the recent numbers are not pretty for the Best Picture category—the quality of films nominated for the Academy's most prestigious award has dipped as of late, at least according to critics. However, data also suggests that recent Oscar nominees have seen a boost in audience engagement through box office receipts.
For this data dive, Stacker analyzed critical review metrics from Metacritic and box office data from The Numbers to look at Best Picture nominations at the Academy Awards. Unless otherwise stated, the analysis goes back to 2010, the first year the Best Picture slate had an increased number of nominees. Read on to learn more about the critical acclaim—or lack thereof—of recent Oscar-nominated films, and how it compares to box office success.
You may also like: Different movies with the same plots
LanKS // ShutterstockDebating the Academy Awards is a pastime that dates back to at least the discovery of the Africus monolith in "2001: A Space Odyssey."
One need look no further than when "Crash" beat out "Brokeback Mountain" for Best Picture in 2006—in a shocking upset—as a common example of controversial Oscar wins. Then there's Rami Malek winning Best Actor in 2019 for his performance as Freddy Mercury in the widely panned (but financially successful) "Bohemian Rhapsody" as another example of what some thought to be a confounding Academy choice. And who could forget when Roman Polanski landed a Best Director win for "The Pianist" in 2003 despite not being able to come to the ceremony due to an outstanding warrant for statutory rape.
It's hard to find a consensus on anything related to the Oscars (except, perhaps, that last year's slap is now a widely recognized cultural moment etched into the annals of Hollywood). But there is one area that can be analyzed to divine some sense of agreement: the data behind critical reviews of Oscar nominees. And the recent numbers are not pretty for the Best Picture category—the quality of films nominated for the Academy's most prestigious award has dipped as of late, at least according to critics. However, data also suggests that recent Oscar nominees have seen a boost in audience engagement through box office receipts.
For this data dive, Stacker analyzed critical review metrics from Metacritic and box office data from The Numbers to look at Best Picture nominations at the Academy Awards. Unless otherwise stated, the analysis goes back to 2010, the first year the Best Picture slate had an increased number of nominees. Read on to learn more about the critical acclaim—or lack thereof—of recent Oscar-nominated films, and how it compares to box office success.
You may also like: Different movies with the same plots
