Pop Culture Advent 2023 – Door 23
Barbenheimer
So I’ve been itching to write about this all month, but decided to leave it until the penultimate day of Pop Culture Advent. Partly because I wanted to give myself a little treat to look forward to, but partly because I honestly don’t know where to begin about the cultural event of the summer.
My summer movie going goes back to 1991 and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (I can quote that film pretty much word for word, and not just the fun Alan Rickman bits). Since then, it’s been Batmen (Keaton, Kilmer, Clooney), aliens (Independence Day, Men in Black), Tom Cruise, Mamma Mia, Bridesmaids, Pixar movies, Christopher Nolan (more on him shortly), and Marvel. But I’ve honestly never seen anything like this.
For those of you who don’t know what Barbenheimer is, then a quick explainer: Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer, about the scientist who developed the atomic bomb, and Grega Gerwig’s Barbie, about the Mattel doll, were released on the same day in July. It was Nolan that was expected to dominate, particularly as he often releases his films during that month. In fact he’s superstitious about it. (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, and Dunkirk, were all out in July).
Still though, one of the Openheimer producers were ‘kind’ enough to phone up Margot Robbie and suggest that Barbie was moved to another date. Thankfully Robbie told them to shove it. (Okay, she declined in a much nicer way than that, but still).
Anyway, people (and by people I mean the internet) soon cottoned onto to the fact these two wildly contrasting films were to be released on the same day, and decided (quite rightly) to have some fun.
There was the La La Land mash up
Barbie: The Destroyer of Worlds
Barbenhimer Day
Barbenheimer represented via architecture
‘Barbenheimer’ made such an impact on the summer cultural zeitguist, that there were big bold claims that this would ‘save cinema’. Was that a big bold claim? Well, it certainly saved the Summer box office. In the US, Barbie made $162 million in it’s opening weekend and was the highest ever opening for a female director. Oppenheimer made a not too shabby $82 million during that same period, and both films combined brought a global figure of over $500 million. Vue Cinemas sold out 2,000 Barbie screenings on the first weekend. Both Cineworld and Odeon had their biggest weeks since Avengers: Endgame in 2019. By the time both films opened, Odeon had sold 200,000 tickets already, with 10,000 of those tickets booked by people seeing both films.
I think what audiences forget is that cinemas are still scrambling to their feet, post-covid closures. My local indie is one of several who have faced risk of closure recently. What started as an internet joke, galvenised cinema goers, and provided a much needed shot in the arm for the film industry.
It would be remiss of me not to mention that Margot Robbie had the last laugh, and Barbie ended up being a cultural phenomenon of its own. (Words like ‘Kenergy’ have now entered our cultural lexicon), and sadly I don’t have time to pay proper justice to it.
So i’ll leave you with I’m just Ken, as performed exquisitely by Ryan Gosling. Oscars — i’m looking at you come spring to have a nominated performance by Gosling, pretty please. He is more than Kenough.