In case you’re wondering what director Martin Scorsese thought about the whole Barbenheimer phenomenon that had audiences flocking to theaters to watch Barbie and Oppenheimer, it turns out that he was a fan of it! He said the whole thing was “something special” and “offers hope for cinema.” During an interview with The Hindustan Times, the filmmaker said:
“I do think that the combination of Oppenheimer and Barbie was something special. It seemed to be, I hate that word, but the perfect storm. It came about at the right time. And the most important thing is that people went to watch these in a theater. And I think that’s wonderful.
“The way it fit perfectly – a film with such entertainment value, purely with the bright colors – and a film with such severity and strength, and pretty much about the danger of the end to our civilization – you couldn’t have more opposite films to work together. It does offer some hope for a different cinema to emerge, different from what’s been happening in the last 20 years, aside from the great work being done in independent cinema.”
I remember back in the day when lots of exciting and great films of different genres were released on the same weekend in theaters all the time! This one just had a fun catchy name that stuck and people just ran with it. Both of the movies ended up having an incredibly successful box office run with Greta Gerwig‘s Barbie making $1.47 billion worldwide. Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer ended up with a $939 million global haul.
I don’t know if we’ll ever see another Barbenheimer as this is the kind of thing that comes naturally and can’t be forced. It was lightning in a bottle. But, it does show that multiple big movies can be released at the same time and be successful at the box office! More of that, please.