One Of Oppenheimer's Producers Tried To Get Margot Robbie To Move Barbie's Release Date
It's incredibly rare that counter-programming should lead to a strange wave of marketing synergy, but that's exactly what happened in the summer of 2023 with the same-day release of Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" and Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer." Audiences were perhaps ironically aware of the extreme differences between the two films and impishly worked their weekends around a deliberately jarring double feature. One was a colorful, kid-friendly treatise on the place of a children's toy, and the other was a bleak reminder of the self-constructed extinction of humanity and of the petty men who stand behind the decisions to deliberately make it.
2023's Barbenheimer phenomenon also may prove to mark an inflection point in popular entertainment. For the past 15 years, studios have doubled-, tripled-, and quadrupled-downed on $200 million effects-driven superhero flicks and franchise movies, feeding into a seemingly un-killable IP-based machine in an attempt to keep certain pieces of pop ephemera permanent fixtures in the mass consciousness. Barbenheimer proved that audiences were ready for more conceptual films. Yes, "Barbie" is also based on a known corporate product, but its appeal wasn't its branding. It was the film's feminist messaging and deconstructionist underpinnings. The makers of both films couldn't have planned the fortuitous timing.
For a moment, however, the producers of "Oppenheimer" aimed to abide by the old Hollywood tradition of giving each blockbuster its own space and wanted their film to open on a different day from "Barbie." In a recent conversation printed in Variety, the respective stars of "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer," Margot Robbie and Cillian Murphy, sat down to discuss their mega-blockbuster double-feature. In doing so, Robbie revealed that the "Oppenheimer" producers tried to force "Barbie" to "get out of the way." She was wise to refuse.
'You should move your date.'
Robbie, who also produced "Barbie," talked about a phone call she received from an old friend, now a bigwig at Universal, who insisted she move the "Barbie" release date. Robbie prodded her friend, implying that Universal was afraid to lose money to "Barbie." Talking to Murphy, Robbie explained:
"One of your producers, Chuck Roven, called me, because we worked together on some other projects. And he was like, 'I think you guys should move your date.' And I was like, 'We're not moving our date. If you're scared to be up against us, then you move your date.' And he's like, 'We're not moving our date. I just think it'd be better for you to move.' And I was like, 'We're not moving!' I think this is a really great pairing, actually. It's a perfect double billing, 'Oppenheimer' and 'Barbie.'"
The two-in-one release, of course, ultimately helped both movies. "Barbie" is currently, domestically, the highest-grossing film of the year, while "Oppenheimer," a grim, adult-oriented biopic, is the fifth-highest grossing. It also helped that both "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" were very, very good, and also that their titles could be handily mashed into a cute portmanteau.
Other executives might want to keep a closer eye on this sort of hand-in-hand counter-programming. One might be savvy to the fact that the ultra-successful concert film "Tayor Swift: The Eras Tour" was originally scheduled opposite the horror sequel "The Exorcist: Believer." At the last minute, "The Exorcist" was moved to the week before "Eras." Which was a pity because "Exorswift" was right there. That was another ironic double feature in the making.
It may have helped matters if "The Exorcist: Believer" wasn't a terrible movie, however.