By Raya Milushev

This summer, I spent two and a half months in the Canadian backcountry, living on a small island in a national park where I had limited phone service, internet, and connection with the outside world. I had little clue what was going on elsewhere, and was oblivious to most news and political events. And yet, despite my best efforts to hide away and stay off-grid and out of the know, what still managed to reach me was ‘Barbenheimer’. This humorous (but now maybe slightly tired) portmanteau references the coinciding release dates of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, but, more importantly, refers to the wider trend sparked by social media users of watching both films on the same day because of their comedic juxtaposition.

Yes, I know, I know and I’m sorry – those of you not shut off from the world this summer have heard no end of ‘Barbenheimer’ and the huge stir of discourse surrounding it. However, I think this phenomenon, when we move past the jokes, memes and hordes of pink-cladded cinemagoers, simultaneously speaks to the enduring power of the cinema, but also the changing methods it must adapt to if it is to survive. It is common conception that cinema as an exhibition space has almost always been in flux. Recent discourse presents the double-pronged attack of the COVID-19 pandemic and the upsurge of streaming platforms as the latest challenge to cinema in a long line of threats which have included the rise of television and the popularity of VHS and DVD. I believe that, instead, the digital era, especially social media, has been a great asset to cinema, though it has changed the way we experience and interact with it. ‘Barbenheimer’ provides an excellent example of how well it can work.

The initial discourse surrounding these two films, and the reason the meme was born in the first place, was the (at least aesthetically) drastic difference between them. Pink bedazzled cowboy costumes and sombre dark suits, plastic fantastic Barbieland and wartime America; the contrast was highly comedic and verging on the point of absurdity, making the jokes surrounding these films ripe for the picking. Had they been released in different months, or even potentially different days in the same month, there arguably would not have been the same online explosion. Similarly, it is hard to see the same buzz being generated if they had premiered on streaming platforms rather than cinemas, especially as the dense maze of never-ending content would make it difficult just to focus on these two films. Noone would have thought to compare them until it came to awards season, and the key viewing experience which many fans undertook – watching both films back-to-back – would not have occurred. But this one connecting factor – the release date – has made all the difference in the way each film has been perceived both off- and online. Barbie will now never be thought of without Oppenheimer, and vice versa.

Clearly, this highlights the importance of the physical cinema space and all the choices – even seemingly trivial ones – surrounding film exhibition. However, there is more at play here. The ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon owes much to the quick-witted humour of social media users and the online platforms that allowed them to bounce off each other to create this massive running joke that ended up having a huge impact on the viewing habits of cinemagoers this summer. Rather than posing a threat to traditional exhibition spaces, the digital era clearly presents ways to support them, though it also comes with a reimagining of viewer practices. The power of this should not be underestimated, especially as the cast and crew of Barbie and Oppenheimer willingly jumped on the social media bandwagon and encouraged the comparisons and connections that were being made between the two films. Ultimately, what started as a joke ended up massively boosting the sales of both films, and reminding audiences of the joys of going to the cinema as opposed to streaming.

So, contrary to Nicholas Barber’s gloomy outlook on what ‘Barbenheimer’ means for cinema (he scoffs, “what does it say about the movie business if it takes a meme as unique and absurd as Barbenheimer to get customers into their local multiplex?”), I believe that this summer’s phenomenon highlights that there are new possibilities on the horizon for cinema, if only it chooses to work with the digital era, rather than fear it.[1]

[1] Nicholas Barber, “What does ‘Barbenheimer’ really mean for Hollywood?” BBC, July 21 2023, https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20230720-what-does-barbenheimer-really-mean-for-hollywood

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