What the meme of the summer reveals about the future of the Hollywood blockbuster
Barbie is a plastic toy doll with a divisive cultural reputation that Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie have made an ironic, hyper-coloured movie about. J. Robert Oppenheimer was a theoretical physicist and father of the atomic bomb who Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy have made a dark, brooding movie about. Both are released next Friday 21 July. Such is the state of Hollywood that Robert has replaced Ken as the most important man in Barbie’s life – and we have the summer of Barbenheimer.
So what? Barbie is Warner Bros, Oppenheimer is Universal so there is no proof of collusion but the key question is whether all this marketing kerfuffle can save Hollywood’s summer.
“Barbenheimer” is one part ironic meme, two parts “ice bucket” style cultural challenge. It’s really a mega merch mash-up with countless Etsy T-shirts juxtaposing the bubbly pink of Barbie with the sinister gloom of an expanding mushroom cloud. The challenge is a movie double header – but which first? Oppenheimer then Barbie proponents require black coffee first, mimosas and brunch between, dinner and club after. Barbie-first protagonists favour a brunch opener, a steak dinner between and then sitting on the kerb staring at the road before going home to drink alone.
Who is to blame for this madness? The earliest recorded use of the portmanteau “Barbenheimer” is David Ehrlich, chief critic for IndieWire, who T]tweeted on 1 January “7 months and 21 days until Barbenheimer.”
Sounds complicated. Some UK cinema chains are trying to simplify. Vue is putting on extra screenings of both and offering a combined super-saver ticket for £9.98.
Enter Tom Cruise, who has one anxious eye on Mission Impossible 7, coming a week ahead of Barbenheimer, this Friday 14 July. Indiana Jones: Dial of Destiny only took $60 million on its opening weekend in the US. Could all this summer’s blockbusters bomb? Cruise just keeps saying, “this summer is full of amazing movies to see in theatres.” Sure thing, Tom.
“The big picture is we’re screwed,” says Richard Rushfield, editorial director of Hollywood trade rag The Ankler. “This year’s box office is not an abject catastrophe, but it feels an awful lot like — name your omen — harbingers of the apocalypse, auguries of destruction, chronicles of Hollywood’s death foretold.” He goes on: “The past few weeks’ box office doesn’t mean anything in and of itself. Our overlords, in their wisdom, have winnowed the Hollywood business model down to humongous four-quadrant tent poles and streaming subscription fees. And at this moment, it looks an awful lot like no-one knows how to make a profit in either.”
Is this the only way to build buzz about movies now? American toy giant Mattel, which owns Barbie, is on a mission to build its own version of the MCU – the Mattel Cinematic Universe. It’s booked J.J. Abrams to direct Hot Wheels and cast Vin Diesel in Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots. There’s Barbie candles, nail polish, adult roller skates, mid-century martini glasses, luggage and even a full-size Barbie Dream House in Malibu available on AirBnB. Oppenheimer has no merch, but after a Transformer in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts blew up on set on the Warner Bros lot at the end of June, the cloud of smoke billowing over Burbank was rumoured to be Nolan-based guerrilla marketing.
Photographs Jaap Buitendijk/ Warner Bros, Christopher Nolan/ Universal Pictures
