Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” has created quite the hype in the last month. What’s more, is that Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” was to release on the same day as the Barbie movie. This helped the marketing teams of both the movies and the trending hashtag on Twitter of late has been “Barbenheimer”. The Twitter Owner, has something about “Barbie”.
Image Source: Indian Express
Greta Gerwig’s Barbie
The Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling has gained so much popularity in the past month. From reviews and the audience’s reaction it really seems to have hit the head on the nail. But it is also receiving its fair share of backlash. Greta Gerwig is also the director of movies like “Little Women” and “Lady Bird”. And Barbie dolls and the concept of it is usually associated with younger girls. When the movie was first announced, the audience did not know what to expect
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer
Nolan is known as one of the finest filmmakers of this generation. Whether it’s “Interstellar” or “Dune” he never fails to deliver the best film experience. “Oppenheimer” as the name suggests, is about American Physicist Robert Oppenheimer who was the father of the atomic bomb and was known to make the very first nuclear weapons. The film stars Cillian Murphy as Robert Oppenheimer, known for playing “Thomas Shelby” in the web series, “Peaky Blinders”and Rober Downey Jr famous for his role as ‘Ironman’ in the Marvel franchise. The film was set to release 21st July, 2024. The same day as Gerwig’s Barbie.
The Internet Buzz
Since both the films, Barbie and Oppenheimer were set to release on the same day, and since they were both very big banner films, the audience naturally tried to pit them against each other. Barbie X Oppenheimer was trending on every possible social media platform. The memes and edits followed. Street interviews included the question, “Are you going to Barbie or Oppenheimer?” “If both, then which one first?”.
Then came the trending hashtag on twitter, “#Barbenheimer” combining the names of both the films. When the films released on 21st July, people started tweeting about them using the same hashtag and made it go all the way to the top. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, recently acquired Twitter and has come out with news of rebranding the app and changing its name and logo to “X” and he had something to say about the Barbie movie. He tweeted that if people took a shot everytime Barbie said “patriarchy” then they’d be passed out before the movie ends, taking a dig at the “feminist agenda” of the film.
On the one hand, Barbie is being widely praised for it’s feminist themes and on the other hand, it’s being heavily criticised for being a “man hating” film. Social media storms on the film are pulling it high up on the box office. Barbie the movie, has done exceptionally well in all countries where it was released, making $162 million in North America alone. The film had a budget of about $140 million, which it has easily recovered two fold at least.
Conclusion
Both the films, Barbie and Oppenheimer have been doing well in the box office. They are extremely different and good in their own way and the internet was very light spirited in this particular competition. Oppenheimer seems to have done better than Barbie in India because of the impression that Christopher has created among the audience with his award winning filmmaking. At the end of the day, it’s best to put away the competition, sit back and enjoy the quality content that is being created by filmmakers.
