This coming Friday comes the event known as Barbenheimer – the double release of both Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” movie and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer”.
Early projections have Barbie winning the domestic weekend box-office with $110 million across 4200+ theaters in North America, compared to the still impressive but more somber $49 million that “Oppenheimer” is tipped to pull in (via Discussing Film).
Cinemas have been joining in on the fun, such as Texas-based Flix Brewhouse where patrons who watch both films on opening weekend will receive a free movie ticket to redeem at a later date.
The promotion of “Barbie” has taken on its own life with ‘Barbiecore’ as it has been dubbed involving brands ranging from Burger King to Crocs. However it also brings pressure and if “Barbie” fails to get a big domestic opening, like numerous other tentpoles have fallen shy of lately, it will be considered a warning sign about the future of the box-office.
Yahoo Finance reports that one potential issue is that the “people get so enamored, so excited about the marketing for the movie that they never show up at the theater” according to University of Michigan Professor Marcus Collins.
With those involved not able to do any last-minute promotion of the film, it also won’t help. However, thanks to a rush of pre-release promotion across late June-early July, it’s thought Babenheimer won’t be affected as awareness of both films is already at a saturation point. Check out a new featurette for “Oppenheimer” below.
Source: Variety