Film opinion: ‘Barbenheimer’ two years on - How the cinematic phenomenon shocked the film industry
Image attribution: (Left) Sean Longmore with Layered Butter - (Right) Rafael Caban (@JustRalphyyy) with Lifestyle Asia
July 21, 2023 was a day that will forever be etched in cinema history.
Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer were simultaneously released on the same day.
The stark contrast between a pink musical celebration of feminism, set in Barbie Land and a scientific historical recreation of the Manhattan Project led to such a popular ironic double-feature movie moment.
Before, during and after the movie's release, fans had created memes, merchandise and other content across various social medias, creating the viral ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon.
Film News Blitz’s Evie Scroggie explores the impact of the revolutionary double-feature event.
The impact on the box office
Both films had such a massive turnout, in a post-pandemic era where cinemas were thought to be in trouble due to the rise in streaming service usage over lockdown.
Cinema tickets for both movies were selling out fast, an unusual trend you don’t often see in cinemas.
Oppenheimer became the highest-grossing biopic ever created, and Barbie grossed over $1 billion across the globe.
New marketing strategies
Neither Warner Bros. (Barbie) or Universal Pictures (Oppenheimer) took advantage of the ‘Barbenheimer’ crossover - it was all down to public influence.
Fan-created ‘Barbenheimer’ content on social media, such as TikTok and Instagram, proved to be much more effective marketing strategies than those created by the official ad campaigners for the movies - of which, millions of dollars was put towards.
Due to this, studios are now trying to replicate similar viral moments on social media, such as meme creation, in order to market their new movies.
Although, the public are becoming sceptical of these marketing strategies as they don’t seem as authentic as the ‘Barbenheimer’ era, with audiences believing it to be manipulative.
Some companies have used such marketing strategies to get audiences excited for the release of their films, hyping them up massively, only to deliver disappointing box office results, such as Sony Pictures’ Madame Web.
The difference in audience expectations
Both Barbie and Oppenheimer were praised by audiences for how incredibly meaningful and thought provoking both films were.
Now, the demand for these types of artistic movies has increased.
Barbie and Oppenheimer both surpassed original expectations.
Barbie wasn’t your typical toy movie, and Oppenheimer wasn’t your typical war biopic. The public began to expect this type of genre bending with the features that followed.
The non-typical approach to movies since ‘Barbenheimer’ allowed for other ambitious films such as Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn, to gain more audience popularity and appreciation.
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When such high audience expectations aren’t met, film companies receive a lot of backlash from the disappointed public.
Overall, it’s not hard to recognise that the ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon created cinematic history and affected the way in which movies are now created and marketed.
It wasn’t just about the films, but the way in which they made the audience feel.
Not only were they moved by the powerful societal impact of both features, but also by how integrated viewers felt by being a part of the social media creations.
Though the sensational ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon has yet to be recreated, its effect still shapes the creative landscape of film to this day.
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