We independently assess all our recommendations. Purchases through our links may earn us a commission.
When two big movies share an exact release date in Hollywood, you’d expect their arrival to spark a box office battle that would split the heavens and leave destruction in their wake. But that’s not what happened with the advent of Barbie and Oppenheimer. Instead, what we got was a metaphorical handshake of peaceful coexistence and even cooperation– the Barbenheimer Phenomenon.
“What the f*ck is ‘Barbeinheimer’?’ you ask as your thick boomer eyeglasses budge over your crumpled eyebrows, and you set aside your jello pudding while leaning forward from the lazy boy at the thought of such a confounding word possibly of Germanic origins.
But no, Barbenheimer is not a new kind of sausage.
It’s a portmanteau of Barbie and Oppenheimer. And no one knows exactly who approved of mashing up these two cultural icons as an amalgam of a weird headcanon that ballooned into an internet phenomenon.
All we must understand now is how it spread and contributed to the box office success of both films, which are now profitable enough for an MCU-level crossover venture in the future (wishful thinking, of course).
How Barbenheimer Come To Be
What was once a corporate commotion led to the two movies sharing the same release date and eventually becoming a meme.
Warner Bros. decided to release Barbie on the same date as Oppenheimer after the latter’s director, Christopher Nolan, walked away from Warner and signed a deal with a rival studio, Universal Pictures. Speculations point to Warner Bros. acting in revenge by releasing Barbie on the same day as Oppenheimer, and Christopher Nolan himself was reportedly annoyed.
But as it turns out, Christopher Nolan needn’t worry too much.
The Barbenheimer Phenomenon ensured that the two rival films ended up promoting each other rather than competing for a box office spotlight. The first instance of the word “Barbenheimer” was uttered in the annals of a social media apocalypse realm called “Twitter,” which now doesn’t X-ist.
By the way!
Did you know we’re launching a Kickstarter campaign? In the next few months, our campaign for ‘Gentle Jack: The Party Game for Bad Friends‘ goes live! Visit the official website or follow the Kickstarter page to stay in the loop.
The rest is history. People were quick to pick up on the meme-ability of the term and the notion itself, with some talented artists even creating mashup posters of Barbie and Oppenheimer for kicks.
This meme then became a marketing bandwagon that grew bigger than an atomic explosion– even the stars of both respective films had to fan the flames and played along.
But it wasn’t just the release dates that stoked the fires of creativity among younger generations (the ones we presume are responsible for these memes). It was also the level of contrast between the two films in their genre, themes, aesthetics, and story that made them the proverbial Yin and Yang of 2020s cinema.
The Duality of Fans
Sure enough, fans of both films and even potential fans had their interests piqued.
As more and more memes were launched into the wild, droves of people were drawn to the prospect of the double-feature fan canon. There were even recommendations on the viewing order on whether to watch Barbie first or Oppenheimer or vice versa.
Fans of Barbie thus promoted Oppenheimer, and Oppenheimer fans were surprisingly accommodating to the same idea despite the latter film being a serious biopic about the man who invented the most destructive weapon in history. Barbie, meanwhile, is a fictional feminist satire wherein a self-aware Barbie realizes the absurdity of her existence.
And even though either film had no official or authorized connection to each other, the fans made it so with their creativity and penchant for humor.
Some deemed Barbie the perfect palate cleanser after witnessing Oppenheimer’s bleak atomic bomb thriller. Others viewed Oppenheimer as the adult after-party following Barbie’s colorful bash.
The Barbenheimer Phenomenon Was a Win for Both Films
Both movies are still undergoing their theatrical runs in cinemas at the time of writing, but we daresay that they have met their success even before their showing has concluded.
Barbie is now halfway to being a billion-dollar movie at the box office. Oppenheimer is at $300 million, and both films have only been out for less than a week.
Barbie beat out one of Christopher Nolan’s strongest films in the past, The Dark Knight, with its box office opening, and Oppenheimer beat its Rotten Tomatoes score. It’s worth noting that The Dark Knight once held a 15-year world record for the world’s biggest Monday box office earnings, only to be beaten by Barbie.
Barbie pulled ahead, of course, but it’s also worth noting that it had a considerably higher production and marketing budget with a better appeal. One could say that Warner’s ‘revenge’ against Nolan’s decision to pick a rival studio paid off, with Barbie approaching close to double Oppenheimer’s earnings.
Still, it’s refreshing to see that Warner’s speculated revenge ploy to overshadow Oppenheimer’s opening was somewhat thwarted by the very fans of Barbie itself in a rather spectacular process of counter-programming. It’s where a film is marketed to an audience from another fanbase.
Imagination and humor triumphed over capitalist toxicity, it would seem.
Where Does Barbenheimer Go From Here?
With the landslide success of both films due to their unofficial hand-in-hand dual promotion, there has to be an opportunity here they shouldn’t miss.
And wouldn’t you know it, Cillian Murphy, the lead actor in Oppenheimer (who plays the titular character himself) is now teasing everyone with the prospect of Barbie 2. More than that, he also wants to be a Ken in the hypothetical Barbie sequel.
Okay, let’s calm down. It’s just his answer to a reporter’s playful question. However, with Cillian Murphy laying his chips on the table and the overwhelming success of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, it’s likely only a matter of “if” and “when.” Sadly, we can’t expect the same follow-up for Oppenheimer, as Christopher Nolan doesn’t seem too warm to the idea of sequels (unless it’s about Batman).
It might be up to the internet once more to drop another Barbenheimer Phenomenon bomb and push this actor crossover we need in Barbie 2. A few memes and a bit of creativity go a long way.
It’s this very imagination of the fans of both films that has contributed to the success of Barbie and Oppenheimer; they endearingly supported and accepted each other on multiple levels. To that, we raise a toast and quote the words of a modern poet and prophet of the times, “Imagination, life is your creation. Come on, Barbie, let’s go party.”
