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barbie and oppenheimer
barbie and oppenheimer
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Culture > Entertainment

The Talk of the Summer: Barbenheimer

Alexis Duffy
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Tampa chapter.

Come on… you didn’t really think I wasn’t gonna write about the talk of the summer? This was definitely a summer for the films. The two stars that gained major social media attention were the films Barbie (2023) and Oppenheimer (2023), two totally different types of movies with the same premiere date. It was a battle of cinema. Now, which one did you see first?

The films premiering weekend became a huge topic of discussion that it even became multiple media trends. There were movie posters combining the two films, TikTok’s of what to wear to each movie, and even memes about that weekend’s schedule. 

The weekend when everyone went to the theaters more than once– July 21, 2023. Barbie (2023) brought in $155 million at the box office for opening weekend, and Oppenheimer (2023) made $82.4 million. The New York Times claims it was the biggest weekend for spending since 2019. 

Let’s jump into the topics. Barbie (2023) is a comedy fantasy movie about Barbie and the real world, while Oppenheimer (2023) is a historical drama thriller about who created the atomic bomb. Extremely different topics, right? Well, the internet then made “Barbenheimer,” a name for the two films combined for the online trends. Social media platforms took two opposite films and created a huge following, leading to an abundance of people going to the theaters this summer to see both films.

This was a successful weekend for theaters, finally gaining the attention they deserved. Streaming platforms have striped the tradition of going to the theaters to see movies always. True film fans will never stop going. The theaters made more this summer solely from two movies than in the past years. Since COVID-19, the domestic yearly box office grosses have increased significantly. The statistics for this year haven’t come in yet, but I bet it will be a big one. 

This raises the question of whether this was an intentional movie marketing plan to get more people to the films. Do you think they knew something like this would happen? Two great directors premiered movies on the same weekend, hmmm. Lastly, will this memorable event lead to more double premiers in the future? With the box office outcomes and the amount of people it reached online, I think so. 

simu liu and ryan gosling in barbie movie
Warner Bros
Alexis Duffy is the President and Senior Editor at the Her Campus at Tampa chapter. She writes and edits articles as well as managing the chapter at Tampa. Her articles cover entertainment and lifestyle topics focusing on films and traveling. Outside of Her Campus, Alexis is a senior at the University of Tampa, double majoring in Communication, Media & Culture, and Advertising & Public Relations. She is currently an part time employee at the Tampa Bay Arts & Education Network, where she works on media projects and shadows in the tv studios helping with production. Alexis enjoys art, adventures, film, and traveling during her downtime. She often finds herself going down a rabbit hole when watching videos about the production of a movie, interviews, and fun facts about cinema. Alexis always seems to have her phases, whether it’s a Harry Potter marathon or watching The Dark Knight Trilogy.