Box office record breakers Barbie and Oppenheimer made a combined tally of just under £30 million in the UK and Ireland in their opening weekends, following months of lead-up and excitement—the effect of which can never be repeated, despite what studios will be hoping.
Arguably igniting a real return to form for cinema, ‘Barbenheimer’, as it has come to be known, fuelled the fourth biggest overall weekend in domestic box office history. It is beaten only by Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, all of which are part of major franchises. It’s fair to say that the Barbenheimer effect has been fantastic for the silver screen, especially after the last few turbulent years.
Though studios may try, however, it will be impossible to successfully replicate the phenomenon that was so instrumental in this success.
How Barbenheimer came to be
Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan had been distributing his films with WarnerMedia, the parent company of Warner Bros. Pictures, since 2002. However, in 2020, he found himself in a dispute with WarnerMedia when it made the decision to release all of its 2021 films on its streaming service, HBO Max. The plan went south when Warner Bros. distanced itself from this plan in March of that year, but by then the acclaimed director had made plans of his own. In September 2021, he announced that Oppenheimer would be distributed by Universal Pictures.
One of the conditions of this deal was the promise the film wouldn’t go to a streaming service straight away, and would have a 100-day theatrical window. Following this, the July 21, 2023 release date was announced. But in 2022, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. announced that Barbie would be releasing on that same date—with the Nolan disagreement being quoted as the cause.
The build up
Buzz around both films, and the behind-the-scenes drama between them, began very quickly and the anticipation only built as time went on. The first use of the term ‘Barbenheimer’ was in April last year but really took off earlier this year through memes on Twitter (now X). Before too long it was difficult to avoid Barbenheimer, as fan-made posters and merchandise began emerging everywhere.
Meanwhile, the official marketing for Greta Gerwig’s Barbie was proving to be incredibly effective, with $150 million set aside for the project. A Barbie Dreamhouse was created in Malibu, bookable through Airbnb, a themed boat cruise was available in Boston, and everything you can think of was turned ‘Barbie pink’. Though the marketing team was pulling out all the stops, a large proportion of its promotion happened organically, Josh Goldstine, president of global marketing at Warner Bros., told Variety, with the popularity of the Barbenheimer concept across social media fuelling much of this.
Oppenheimer’s marketing budget could have been anywhere between $65 million and $100 million, according to Collider. It didn’t go to the lengths that Barbie did, arguably due to the fact that it’s a less fun and more dramatic film. You could contend that Oppenheimer got a free ride on the coat-tails of Barbie’s marketing successes—it wasn’t often there would be Barbie press without mention of Oppenheimer—but this was a two-way relationship, with Cillian Murphy stating in an interview with IGN that the Barbenheimer fascination was beneficial not only for the two films in question but for the cinema industry as a whole.
Barbenheimer’s success
This juggernaut inevitably came to full fruition when July 21 rolled around. With the promise of Barbenheimer came the challenge of watching both films on opening weekend, even on the same day.
With millions of people flocking to their local cinemas for the double feature, the trends continued and audiences showed up decked out in pink or black, or pink and black! The dichotomy and tonal juxtaposition between the two was enough to turn a simple joke into the colossus it became, inspiring some inventive costumes; some viewers even changed their outfits on the way from one film to the other.
Organic engagement
This cultural event is, at its very core, unique in its transcendence of the silver screen. Barbenheimer originated from a shared release date, but the films’ significance go deeper than that. They are two high quality films, directed by two well-known powerhouses in the industry, with two strong aesthetics. Not only this but they are new stories rather than reboots, remakes, spin-offs or the latest in a franchise (although we have since learnt more about Mattel’s plans going forward).
The worry now is about what lessons studio executives will take from these last few months. It’s no lie that we can already see it happening as it is factored into marketing, as Paramount Pictures tries to coin ‘Saw Patrol’, with Paw Patrol and Saw X releasing on September 29. The problem with studios trying to replicate this is it feels manufactured. The way Barbenheimer developed was completely up to fans and cinema-goers, with studios initially blindsided by the trend and only later jumping on the bandwagon—the vital part being they never had control of it in the first place. Also, while Barbie and Oppenheimer are very different films, there’s potential for them to appeal to similar demographics—something that can’t be said for a film aimed at children and a horror flick.
What these studios should realise sooner rather than later is that this sort of popularity can’t be corporate and forced. It has to feel authentic, or audiences will tune out. Attempting to replicate what happened with these two blockbusters cannot be done.
Barbenheimer isn’t the first to see this sort of unprecedented success thanks to audience-created trends. The ‘Gentleminions’ TikTok trend took over cinemas in July last year upon the release of Minions: The Rise of Gru, with hundreds of videos showing teens turning up to their local theatres in suits and formalwear. Although the rowdy behaviour of these audiences led to them being banned from screenings, the trend did bolster the film’s earnings for a while. TikTok also previously wreaked havoc on Morbius in 2022; Sony didn’t seem to understand that the film’s cult fanbase was ironic, and re-released the Jared Leto-fronted film to a second round of bad press and poor box office earnings.
Barbenheimer was a magical, once-in-a-lifetime event, and audiences are happy to keep it that way. For studio executives, it may take a little more convincing. Regardless of what the future holds, for two films to open to over £10 million each at the box office amid the cost of living crisis and the lasting effects of the pandemic signals that the revival of cinema is on its way. At its heart, this isn’t about any two films releasing on the same day. It’s about visionary directors striving to create daring, innovative films—something which should always be valued above a cheap marketing strategy.
Words by Gemma Nettle
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