Warner Bros. Spite: The Real Reason Behind The Barbie vs. Oppenheimer’s Box Office Battle Reportedly Revealed

Oppenheimer and Barbie are set to battle it out at the box office this July, and a new report suggests Warner Bros. Discovery may have scheduled the latter film out of spite. Oppenheimer, which is budgeted at $100 million, marks director Christopher Nolan’s first collaboration with Universal after previously working with Warner Bros. Much has been made of the fact that both Oppenheimer and Barbie are hitting theaters on the same day, and the reasoning behind this decision has previously been unclear.

Now, however, ahead of the Barbie and Oppenheimer release dates next month, Puck reports that Warner Bros. Discovery apparently scheduled the Gerwig movie on the same day as Nolan’s as a “middle finger” to Universal. Nolan broke ties with Warner Bros. in 2021 after publicly criticizing the company’s move to a day-and-date release strategy for much of its 2021 slate, and the company is reportedly not too pleased with Universal’s new collaboration with the filmmaker.

Christopher Nolan’s Warner Bros. Controversy Explained

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the theatrical movie business took a big hit. Theaters around the world closed down or operated in fits and starts. Nolan himself is a very vocal proponent of the theatrical experience and penned op-eds and started petitions at the time to attempt to save the struggling movie theaters. Nolan’s time-bending espionage thriller Tenet was intended to serve as a lifeline to theaters when it was released at the height of the pandemic in August 2020, but the movie was a significant flop.

Tenet, which marked Nolan’s most expensive original project to date with a budget of $205 million, earned only $363 million at the box office, failing to crack even $60 million domestically. The failure of the film was a major deciding factor in Warner Bros.’ decision to shift much of its 2021 slate to a hybrid release model. This “day-and-date” model saw movies like Godzilla vs. Kong, Mortal Kombat, and The Suicide Squad, among others, released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max (now just Max).

Nolan was a very vocal critic of this move, arguing that it was a slap in the face to theaters and to the filmmakers who not only worked hard on crafting movies for the theatrical experience but who also had no say in the decision to shift to day-and-date. With confirmation now that Oppenheimer is rated R, it’s looking likely that Barbie will end up being the winner at the box office but, however the showdown pans out, it’s clear that Warner Bros. Discovery didn’t take kindly to losing one of its star filmmakers.