July 21, 2023, saw the release of both Greta Gerwig‘s Barbie and Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer, and rather than cannibalize each other’s audience, this synergistic counter-programming resulted in the fourth biggest combined weekend box office of all time.
But the numbers don’t lie. Barbie is more popular than Oppenheimer, earning twice as much. Their combined total is well over $1B to date.
My take: It appears plastic out-punches plutonium.
Stephen and I saw Oppenheimer on Wednesday, Aug. 9th and then saw Barbie on Friday, Aug. 11th. Both excellent movies for different reasons.
Oppenheimer: Powerful. Sobering. An excellent biography creatively told and timely released. The audience was absolutely silent when they exited the theatre, it was that stunning and gut-wrenching. It is a must-see.
Barbie: It talked about issues of girls’ and women’s body image, how Mattel dealt with its flagging sales in 2018 (having Barbie as Astronaut, Doctor, etc.) and how it depicts Ken (there is no Ken without Barbie) – not dealing with real underlying issues of the patriarchal ideology in today’s society. At the end of the film, we both said at the same time: “That was a good social commentary.” (I said actually ‘sociological’ due to my minor studies towards my BA and post-grad studies, but come on!) The story is a comical satire with a good deep message. When we came out of the theatre, Stephen said that he did “not believe it would get an Academy Award, but it should.” We both feel it will get an award for production design.
Stephen and I both feel Barbie will get an award for production design. Nominations will definitely go to both Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) and Ryan Gosling (Barbie). Who will win…?