No.165 / Sep 4, 2023
Have you heard of Barbenheimer? It is a new-coined word that combines two movies, <Barbie> and <Oppenheimer>. Currently, Barbenheimer is creating a craze in American theaters. Released in the United States (U.S.) together on July 21, 2023, <Barbie> and <Oppenheimer> have contrasting atmospheres and genres, which attract customers, and are spreading a trend, such as watching two movies in a row. The two movies are creating unprecedented popularity in American cinema, including the creation of a fictional Barbenheimer poster. Magazine <Variety> also called Barbenheimer “the Movie of the Year”.
Then, why did the two movies come out together? First, to briefly introduce the two movies, <Barbie> is a modern reinterpretation of Barbie, a world-famous doll series. It is characterized by bright pink and colorful images. On the other hand, <Oppenheimer> is a biographical movie that tells the story of Oppenheimer, a physicist who led the first nuclear weapon development project. Due to the feature of the theme, the two films are considered tempting because they show the contrast between creating and destroying the world. However, there is an inconvenient truth in the simultaneous screening of the two movies, a conflict between the film distributor and the director. <Oppenheimer>’s director is Christopher Nolan, whose work has been invested and distributed by Warner Bros (WB) since <Batman Begins>. However, during COVID-19, WB made an unconventional decision to simultaneously release the movie in the theater with HBO Max, a streaming service, and Nolan, who values the theater experience, was greatly disappointed by WB’s action. Therefore, <Oppenheimer> was distributed by Universal Pictures. The problem is, the uncomfortable conflict began when WB suddenly set <Barbie>’s release date as that of <Oppenheimer>’s. It is being said that it is revenge against Nolan. Therefore, people speculated that if the two movies were released on the same day, customer demand would be dispersed, and both movies would likely have a negative impact on box office success.
However, contrary to the worries of simultaneous releases, the popularity of Barbenheimer has led both films to box office success. <Barbie> was expected to earn about 80 million dollars on its first day of release, and <Oppenheimer> was also expected to earn 40 million dollars, but its first weekend earnings were 162 million and 82.5 million dollars, respectively. In other words, the two movies together earned more than 200 million dollars. Then, why did the two movies become popular? There is a trend of the aforementioned Barbenheimer, but it can be also seen that they touched the emotions of Americans. They have something in common, set in the mid-20th-century in the U.S. Here, <Barbie> is characterized by stimulating nostalgia: 20s to 40s women have memories of playing with Barbie dolls as children, and <Barbie> recalled their memories and recreated them with new messages. In addition, <Oppenheimer> was able to make a hit because it featured a person who shocked world history beyond 20th-century American history. Furthermore, the fact that these two movies were created by Greta Gerwick and Christopher Nolan, film masters, was also a big issue.
A craze for the two movies also helped the U.S. economy. According to Bank of America (BofA), credit card consumption for entertainment has increased by 13.2%, speculating that the release of <Barbie> and <Oppenheimer> may have affected it. Jerome Powell, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve said that this situation is the overall momentum of the economy that seeks to calm inflation and restore consumer confidence. In addition, it can be seen positively because Barbenheimer has melted the frozen hearts of customers who were reluctant to go to the theater due to COVID-19 and revitalized the theater district, which has been stagnant for a long time.
<Barbie> was released in Korea before the U.S. on July 19, 2023. However, despite the global craze, Korea has created a rather low record of about 560,000 audiences. Why has not <Barbie> been a box office hit in Korea? First, the movies that were screened when <Barbie> was released in Korea were relatively competitive. <Elemental> earned a high income by going viral, and customer loyalty to Tom Cruise boosted the audience for <Mission Impossible 7>. Second, there are relatively few memories of Barbie in Korea. In contrast, released a day later, <Detective Conan: Black Iron Submarine> quickly attracted audiences thanks to actions and solid scenarios that satisfied longtime fans. Finally, the rise of the feminist debate also has an impact. By defining it as a feminist movie, many people refused to watch it, and even female audiences who simply wanted to enjoy the movie avoided watching it because the word “feminism” is recognized as a stereotype in South Korean society. In fact, the movie’s intention is not to divide men and women, but to build female characters with equal positions with men to give women courage and hope. However, <Barbie> is now leading the fashion trend. Various pink colors, such as light pink and magenta pink are applied to various items, and even collections in collaboration with Mattel, which produced Barbie dolls, are being introduced. Also, LF cited “Barbie Core” as the keyword of this summer’s fashion trend, which is leading the retro trend along with the Y2K craze in Korea.
<Oppenheimer> was released in Korea on August 15, 2023, somewhat later than <Barbie>. What is noteworthy here is the release date: August 15 is the National Liberation Day of Korea. It is doubtful that a movie about a person who contributed to the end of World War ll by dropping a nuclear bomb on Japan was released on our liberation day, but Universal Pictures drew a line on an expanded interpretation, saying it was a schedule to consider competition with the masterpiece. This saying is related to a negative view of <Oppenheimer> in Japan, which is still suffering from the nuclear bomb. However, some Japanese people are actively agreeing with its release. They said that the Japanese need to watch the movie and criticize it by checking how thoroughly historical research has been made. <Oppenheimer>’s release in Japan is still under discussion.
By Lee Ga-eun, AG Reporter
dlrkdms2231@ajou.ac.kr
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