Barbie Vs. Oppenheimer: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blonde Bombshell
Left vs. Right. Leave vs. Remain. Logan vs. Kendall. One look at the trending conversations on Twitter these past few years and it’s clear to see we’re living through the most polarising of times. And it’s in the boxing ring of social media — where opinion is king, and tribalism beats nuance every time — that we just love to tie on our colours, jump into the fray, and duke it out for whichever side we’re supporting that week.
Well, this week, the colours in question are undoubtedly pink and black, with Friday finally seeing the big-screen release of Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’, and Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ as the films go head-to-head in perhaps the most gloriously mismatched box-office dust-up ever seen.
Ding, ding, seconds out! In the pink corner, Gerwig’s celebration of the world’s most iconic doll stars Margot Robbie as the eponymous Barbie, and Ryan Gosling as boyfriend Ken, as they swap their dream home for a taste of the real world. Three-time Oscar nominee Gerwig’s lo-fi ‘mumblecore’ roots are a far cry from the gleaming Hollywood blockbuster she’s about to become best known for, but her lightness of touch and indie chops are bound to serve her well and ensure that — despite its subject matter — the film will be anything but plastic and superficial.
And in the black corner, five-time Oscar nominee Christopher Nolan with his three-hour long apocalyptic epic starring Cillian Murphy as physicist Robert J. Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb. Shot with IMAX cameras and boasting a heavyweight supporting cast which includes Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr, Matt Damon, Gary Oldman and Kenneth Branagh, the film is set to be a visual treat, a movie buff’s dream, and — it probably goes without saying — an altogether darker and gloomier proposition than its perky, pink-clad sparring partner.
Whichever one you fancy in this fight — and whether you’ve got ringside seats or not — you won’t have been unaware of the steadily growing buzz around both films, which has erupted into a thundering roar over recent weeks thanks to a year-long campaign of cleverly executed teasers and trailers on both sides. But something else has happened too: something a little unexpected and — from a marketing perspective — impossible to ignore.
While Gerwig’s film — with its obvious merchandising tie-ins and broader appeal — has long been on track to have the more impressive opening weekend financially, when the dust settles, both films will have benefitted from something far more important, cementing them in the zeitgeist in a way neither could have achieved alone, in what some have been calling the ‘Barbenheimer’ effect.
Counter-programming — the tactic of releasing films catering to disparate audiences on the same day — is nothing new, but in this case, it has been harnessed to near-genius effect. Indeed, rather than shutting down communications which might, on the face of it, have seemed ‘off-message’, both sides have instead leaned into the outlandishness of the double-billing and soaked up the mutual benefits in return, even allowing their respective stars to break the fourth wall during promotional activities (Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie blew up Twitter a few weeks ago when they posted pictures of themselves buying tickets to see the Nolan film, and Cillian Murphy recently cited the double-billing as “great for the industry and for audiences”).
Social media audiences, too, have been invited to celebrate not only what makes the films different (which is, on the surface, everything), but also to revel in what unites them, with meme-makers and commentators finding fertile new ground in this most unlikely of crossovers, going so far as to envisage a universe in which the two stories take place on the same timeline (although stopping short at actually ‘shipping’ Barbie and ‘Bobby’, as far as one can see).
Of late, it hasn’t been a case of which film will you see, but which one will you see first, with fans bickering on Twitter over the optimum running order (Oppenheimer to start, with a much-needed Barbie chaser, obv), and cinemas scheduling screenings to allow fans to indulge in an old-school double-bill (laying on signature cocktails to boot, in the bougier parts of town).
In the wake of the pandemic, and in the age of streaming, it has felt like a long time since cinema has really been able to catch hold of the public imagination in this way, but perhaps it’s rallying now and ready to go another round. And it’s testament to the continuing (and, perhaps now, evolving) power of social media that this has been able to happen; a reminder that it can still be a force for good, when approached with a little bit of imagination, and a healthy dose of humour.
Untethering the cultural conversation like this allows it to roam away from the overly trodden path of ‘us vs. them’ and towards something more harmonious, more collaborative, and distinctly more interesting. In a world where Barbie and The Bomb both exist side-by-side, it’s hard to be truly optimistic, but if this is the future of online discourse then maybe there’s hope after all.
Anna Vincent is Creative Lead at specialist communications agency 33Seconds — you can follow her on LinkedIn here
A version of this article was also published on TheDrum.com on 21st July 2023
