After a monumental opening weekend, the success of Barbie and Oppenheimer is clear for all to see, but Hollywood may learn the wrong lessons. Both Barbie and Oppenheimer have been hugely successful in their own right, with their opening weekend making $511 between them. Oppenheimer has made over $700 million so far in its box office run, while Barbie became Warner Bros.’s highest-grossing movie in U.S. history, reaching over $1 billion. Each movie has seen individual success, but the organic marketing campaign really helped push and promote both movies. With the films heavily contrasting, it made audiences want to see both, which many did on the same day, creating Barbenheimer.
Despite this triumph for both films, the lessons that Hollywood learns from Barbenheimer are a concern. The way in which both movies managed to work simultaneously is a bit of an anomaly and not something that will prove to be a viable marketing strategy in the future. A level of caution should be taken about release dates and big movies overlapping, even if Oppenheimer and Barbie managed to thrive despite releasing on the same day. There are many reasons why Barbenheimer worked, and as a result, it is important studios learn the right lessons rather than set upcoming movies up for failure.
Why Barbenheimer’s $245 Million Bet Massively Paid Off After A Year Of Hype
Barbie and Oppenheimer have made massive profits compared to their sizable budget, emphasizing the gamble taken on these films paid off. With a $100 million budget, Oppenheimer has smashed box office landmarks. They include the $700 million grossed already, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated movie of the year and the highest-grossing World War II film of all time. Likewise, Barbie’s $145 million budget has seen the film gross over $1 billion and compete for the highest-grossing film of the year with The Super Mario Bros. Movie. While both films had large budgets, the hype generated around Barbenheimer helped them become two of 2023’s biggest movies.
The $245 million bet paid off, with audiences having plenty to invest in. Both films have an impressive cast, with Margot Robbie and Cillian Murphy big enough stars to take leading roles and help sell tickets. Christopher Nolan is one of Hollywood’s biggest directors, while Greta Gerwig has had her fair share of quality movies in recent years, earning a level of trust from viewers. The opposite nature of these movies also helped drive an organic marketing campaign that was done largely on social media without planning from studios. It took a variety of factors to go right, but Barbenheimer proved to be a huge success for all involved.
Barbenheimer’s Success Won’t Be Easily Replicated (& Hollywood Shouldn’t Try To)
After seeing the success of Barbenheimer, Hollywood will be eager to replicate it, but this is the wrong lesson to learn from the triumph. With the cast, crews, and audience marketing being so special, Barbenheimer isn’t the type of success story that comes around all too often. While an annual summer double bill sounds fun on paper, both movies were high-quality films crafted for their own audiences. The Barbenheimer campaign certainly helped, but both Barbie and Oppenheimer would likely have found success if they had been released separately. Trying to manufacture films to release at the same time will detract from their individual nature and make them lose their longevity.
Barbie proved to have long-term success, with Blue Beetle dethroning Barbie for no.1 spot at the box office after Gerwig’s film spent four weeks on top. Oppenheimer has shared equal lasting power, especially at Imax screens. The originality and quality of these films helped sell a double-bill weekend. However, trying this yearly with any pair of movies would likely be a disaster. Had current internet culture been around in 2008, The Dark Knight and Mamma Mia may have had a similar weekend to Barbenheimer. That is due to the quality nature of both films and their opposite styles, not just because they both released on the same weekend.
Barbenheimer Proves Huge Franchises Are No Longer The Key To Huge Release Weekends, But Will Hollywood Learn This Lesson?
Big franchises have dominated the box office for a long time. It is why we have seen so many reboots and sequels, yet Barbenheimer has proven this is not the only recipe for success. Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania reviewed badly, and The Flash’s box office failure repeated unwanted history for DC, yet both Barbie and Oppenheimer thrived. Barbie is a big brand, and Christopher Nolan is arguably a brand on his own, but neither of these films had previous cinematic experience and managed to dethrone the superhero powerhouses. This is a clear sign that franchises aren’t the key to big opening weekends.
Mattel has announced upcoming toy movies after Barbie, highlighting that Hollywood is already not learning from Barbenheimer’s success. The reason so many people went to see Oppenheimer and Barbie was because of their uniqueness and originality. Barbie’s success didn’t come because people craved films about toys and wanted to see more Mattel films. It was because they wanted to see something different. Rather than a Barbie 2, people want to see “The Next Barbie,” the next original movie that is a must-see because it hasn’t been done before. If Barbenheimer has shown anything, it is that Hollywood needs to be more original, not that it needs more franchises and sequels.
