Explainer: Barbie vs Oppenheimer
This week, there has been a fierce fight between two warring parties. They’re as different as they possibly could be, they have their own party colours and have thrown huge piles of cash at their success.
We’re talking, of course, about Oppenheimer vs Barbie. Who did you think we were referring to?
The two movies both come out this Friday, both have a star-studded cast full of favourite household names, and are expected to be a good old big screen success.
In the last few years – one of those trends accelerated by the pandemic – the number of movies being screened in cinemas has plummeted. Almost all of the most successful films at the box office have been part of a franchise – think of the never-ending Marvel universe or James Bond.
In fact all of the top grossing films at box office last year were not stand-alone films and slotted into a series.
Barbie, ostensibly, is a re-make of a well-loved favourite. But the new movie, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie, alongside Ryan Gosling, diverges quite drastically from the original animations.
Oppenheimer, a dramatised adaptation of the scientist developing the atomic bomb, could not be more different.
If the Barbie fans are swathed in pink, bragging about reclaiming “bimbo” as a feminist exploit, Oppenheimer followers are stripped of colour and awash with existential angst.
The success of both will be an interesting test for the modern-day box office, where so many movies are dumped onto streaming services with little fanfare.
And, at the very least, the winner may be less predictable than the results of the upcoming by-elections.