Barbie v. Oppenheimer: YOU DECIDE

[Gradine]

You put way too much focus on the emotional arcs of the characters.
-Nolan discussing Kubrick, probably.

E-mo-shuns? What is that? Sounds made up to me.
-Nolan, trying to figure out how he got saddled with directing Interstellar*, more than likely




*Same, Chris. Same.

 

[Zardnaar]

Probably the one big "swing and a miss" for me on Barbie was:

Spoiler

When the Barbie's took back the government, they gave teh Ken's a "a few little rights" rather than full inclusion. Effectively providing the idea that women would be just like men given positions of power, that nothing really was learned.

It was to me the obvious chance to "do things better". Margot's Barbie, realizing how poorly she treated Ken, pushes for the Barbie's to "do better" and really give the Ken's a stake in things, creating the "perfect inclusive world" that Barbie was supposed to represent.

Instead it provides the message "to bring someone up, you got to keep someone else down"

There is also one scene in the movie that didn't work for me but did for my girlfriend. A scene where one character does a monologue talking about all the contradictions women have to go through. I personally found it a rough scene, it came across as very preachy and expository. Ultimately I thought other aspects of the movie did it better by "showing not telling". However, my girlfriend found that scene powerful and she really "felt what she was talking about". So ultimately its a reminder to me that I'm not really the target audience here.

I too k it to mean change is good but if you go to far to fast you get a dystopia as Barbie world and Ken land both suck. Could also take it as satire against extremism.

There's more to it but that's the gist. Also raises things like free will.

You could also rake it as a failure or criticism. It's not preaching as such but leaves it open ended.

 

[Zardnaar]

Maybe. But tracking has gotten really good over the last decade. And the whole Barbenhiemer phenomenon (which greatly increased the overall awareness of the movie, as well as the desire to see it) was the primary driving factor behind the increase in the tracking numbers that saw amazing growth in the past three weeks.

There's actually been a fair amount of discourse in the industry about this, and why this type of unexpected viral phenomenon matters; I don't think anyone genuinely thinks the Minions: The Rise of Gru was the greatest movie in the history of ever (6.5 IMDB, 70% rotten tomatoes), yet the unexpected Gentle Minions phenomenon was certainly a major factor in the box office performance and caused it to significantly overperform expected numbers.

In other words, sure, it's a great Nolan movie. But it's also a biopic about a figure most people aren't familiar with. The gangbuster box office for opening weekend (as well as the many reports of theaters being fully sold out) is a reflection of the pop culture zeitgeist.

Tracking generally pretty good give or take 10%. Barbies an exception though.

155 million.


Online discussion had it tracking higher than the official figures though at say r/boxoffice.

Both movies got around double their lower forecasts from 2 weeks ago.

 

[Clint_L]

Oppenheimer is about a real man enabling literal destruction of the human world.

Barbie is about the actual systemic oppression of half of the human race.

Also...a bunch of dudes arguing about how well Barbie works as an exploration of the patriarchy is kind of ironic.

Edit: As well, I would argue that Barbie also explores why real men would enable the literal destruction of the world.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Barbie is about the actual systemic oppression of half of the human race.

Yes, but ... pink!

 

[Umbran]

Barbie is about the actual systemic oppression of half of the human race.

You know, this... theme-sizing seem to me to be based in the mindset that creates that oppression, so I'm out. You win. You have the biggest... theme.

Also...a bunch of dudes arguing about how well Barbie works as an exploration of the patriarchy is kind of ironic.

If that's what you thought I was doing, you were... way off.

 

[CleverNickName]

This is an interesting poll. Throwing out the Both and Neither votes (assuming they apply equally to both options), we're left with 35 total votes: 19 for Barbie (54%) and 16 for Oppenheimer (46%).

Barbie had an opening of $162M, and Oppenheimer had an opening of $82M. So if votes were dollars, we would have 244 million votes and Barbie would have taken 66% of them (with the remaining 33% going to Oppenheimer.) Some folks must have watched both, obviously, but box office figures alone aren't enough to figure out how many.

 

[Vael]

I have completed the first half of the Barbenheimer and was thoroughly entertained and delighted.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I haven’t seen either. But apparently, not only can you enjoy both, you can enjoy them simultaneously in some venues!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Cue headcanon in which Opie, from the Andy Griffith Show, is a young Oppenheimer...

Well, Barney Fife only had one bullet, soooo…why not a full-on mashup?