The Race to Recreate Barbenheimer

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Barbie and Oppenheimer are massive hits! In this video I go over what Hollywood should learn from that...and what I'm afraid they'll take away instead.
Music by Epidemic Sound (www.epidemicsou...)
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Special thanks to Andrew Elliott (Stalli111: / stalli111 ) for editing this video!

[@captainmidnight]

Have you seen Barbie or Oppenheimer? Which did you prefer? Trade is offering my viewers a free bag of coffee with any subscription at www.drinktrade.com/captainmidnight

[@lpc9929]

I am infertile from eating scented candles

[@silasjackson993]

I’ve seen Oppenheimer 3 times and Barbie once (so far)

[@Bullzi009]

I saw both. Didn’t really connect with Barbie

[@SpammytheHedgehog]

I want to see both, honestly.

[@SpaceRider15]

Pikmin 4, the third property made on 7/21/23

[@TheRibottoStudios]

The next Barbenheimer will be the equivalent of "how do you do fellow kids?" and we will all get second hand embarrassment.

[@simulacrxm]

oh my god exactly

[@tiamystic]

We got Sawpatrol shit now.

[@NoxLegend1]

They do a new form of how do you do fellow kids with being overly woke and trying to get people pissed off about it to gain pseudo support through political guilt tripping. So cringe. People who truly care about social justice should never crutch on corporate media companies who use the social issues you care about as marketing currency while remaining desperate, greedy and as disingenuous as possible.

[@Sarappreciates]

So the Fast & Furious franchise is practically played itself out straight into ridiculousness. I propose a reboot in the form of a *_HOT WHEELS_* movie. I'm not even kidding because like Lego, HotWheels has some famous IP vehicles such as Batman, Evel Knievel, Dukes of Hazard, Scooby Doo, even Rick and Morty's ship! Tell me that doesn't sound even a little fun. Including it as a "double feature" is a movie marketing strategy as old as the Talkie itself.

[@wheniztheend]

Exactly. Everytime big companies try replicating organically made memes it always comes off as "how do you do fellow kids". You can't just force a meme. Sometimes you can create a meme intentionally if it's genuine enough. But when money is the main motivator, these "memes" that big companies try to make are always so cringe worthy.

[@honestlykyle]

The one thing that’s guaranteed to happen is that studios will learn the wrong lessons from Barbenheimer and embarrass themselves trying to replicate the hype.

[@somethingclever4297]

We already saw that with the tweet.

[@K0m30ng]

Barbenheimer is s exactly what Morbius tried to be in the first place that failed miserably. They wanted to be Barbenheimer, instead they be Morbius

[@TimLSim]

We all shouldn’t be surprised because this is typical Hollywood executives’ behavior.

[@imanoldurango8213]

To be fair the phenomenon almost happened with Civil War and Batman V Superman. But WB changed bvs to come out sooner, prolly because civil war would destroy it.

[@xavidelfiorano]

Yep, the hype comes naturally, specially when a product is good (the main point of this, not matter how you sell it, if you sell shit…it will always be). When is forced…you have a Morbius.

[@imdankarlin]

I feel like so much of the excitement of Barbenheimer came simply from there being two major theatrical releases in one weekend, and neither of them involved superheroes.

[@GS-md1ex]

Yeah, it was two good movies that just weren’t the same bland reprocessed Disney stuff, or sequels that are the exact same as the predecessor. Hollywood is gonna continue making mass produced bad movies instead of just making a few good movies.

[@accusedtoppat]

Exactly. Two unique, interesting, stand-alone movies.

[@arnoldfreeman2885]

The lack of superhero stuff was definitely an unspoken factor

[@leonre3677]

I agree! They were about human beings living extraordinary lives but were flawed in terrifyingly relatable ways.

[@gregorious6507]

How to create the next Barbenheimer: 1. The movies have contrasting tone 2. They have a good amount of target audience overlap 3. They are equally interesting/appealing 4. Both would be hits individually If any of these criteria aren't met, I can't see something like this happening

[@partyfish3415]

Barbenheimer is like chocolate and peanut butter. Both are phenomenal products on their own, with kids and adults alike enjoying them individually. But together, you get a treat that draws in a new audience, and massively increases the hype of the individual fanbases. Barbenheimer is greater than the sum of its parts.

[@unicornindustry4511]

@@partyfish3415 this is the same that happen with Doom and Animal croasing

[@donaldduck73]

​@@unicornindustry4511YES I SERIOUSLY THOUGHT THE SAME

[@MaxP_88]

No one watches serious dramas in cinemas anymore, this was an exception because Christopher Nolan is the last celebrity director alongside Tarantino. And no one else is big enough as Nolan.

[@detailedinfodisplay5210]

Contrasting tone yet similar vibe/origin. Both deal with things that defined mid-century America: plastic toys and atomic anxiety.

[@McManners100]

The Animal Crossing/Doom and Barbenheimer events were some extremely rare events. They gotta happen naturally.

[@HankMFWimbleton]

Nintendo had involvement in both, only partial for the latter

[@GolfinhoVoador]

Yeah, I highly doubt they looked at Doom's release date and said "Lets delay to that same date, possibly fucking with our sales"

[@regulate.artificer_g23.mdctlsk]

I know it's not gonna happen now, but guys! We're overlooking the most obvious example to draw from... MordeTwi. Wait! No, don't cringe! Hear me out...

[@whoisanarnb]

@@regulate.artificer_g23.mdctlsktoo late, I cringed already

[@regulate.artificer_g23.mdctlsk]

@@whoisanarnb You do NOT! But in all honesty - and to be clear - I'm not about the Shooting Stars meme; I'm talking particularly about the pairing itself. With regards to one of the top comments here, there is a parallel between this and Barbenheimer: audience overlap, contrasting tone, and equally appealing in their own right.

[@rattiom]

It'll probably be like the Morbius meme, where fans run with it and the moment brands try to do it it'll fail spectacularly and the companies will drop it immediately

[@captainmidnight]

I should have talked about Morbius here, honestly. It's a really interesting point of comparison.

[@coconuts7960]

@@K0m30ng you missed the point of the comment this is referring to whatever company tries to force this type of meme with new films and they'll fail like the morbius reshowing

[@lm_dccxl4078]

its happening too with blue bettle, at least in latam is a mockin joke on forums and fb comments

[@oldcowbb]

​@@K0m30ng because they are genuinely competent film? morbius could have made big bucks even if it was just mediocre considering how popular it was

[@rummyz6412]

I hope so im tired of these billion dollar businesses thinking they run shit

[@IamSpacedad]

Barbenheimer can't be recreated. What the studios need to do is just make damn good movies that people want to see. Do that and the audiences excited to see them will create their own organic viral phenomena celebrating them from time to time. The form it takes is something no one can predict, not even the audiences.

[@K0m30ng]

Unless Marvel and DC released movies in the same day, who knows they both might create a new Barbenheimer impact 😂

[@andreas4010]

Barbenheimer is a repeat of eternal horizons, When doom eternal and Animal crossing Also released on the same day, in 2020.

[@sosmooth13]

@@andreas4010 please don’t try and make the connection like someone else in the comments did. The marketing executives are going to run with that assumption 😂

[@rubywest5166]

It's the classic "Spend so long working out how to pull a trick/cheat yourself to success that you could've just put in the effort to do the job properly in the first place"

[@sathrielsatanson666]

It can't be recreated... on purpose. It might happen spontaneously tho.

[@PsychoSavager289]

Barbenheimer worked as Barbie was still "adult" enough that it appealed to the masses rather than just little girls, and Oppenheimer was restrained enough in its depiction of the horror of the atomic bomb that it didn't frighten away more sensitive individuals. Different as the movies were in tone, they overlapped in audience enough that many people wanted to see both, and they weren't really polar opposites. "Saw Patrol" won't work. One is a graphically violent horror movie, the other is a cartoon aimed at preschoolers. Those really are two completely different demographics with virtually no overlap.

[@leosangome866]

I also love Gremlins 2

[@TheMedicatedArtist]

Applying this logic to Doom/Animal Crossing also makes sense.

[@mdogg094]

I agree with the general point aside from the idea that Oppenheimer was restrained lol, lots of scenes in the third act of people yelling or arguing with slowly rising anxiety music. Might have been me seeing it in imax tho lol

[@Samuel-us5tz]

​@@mdogg094I think they're referring to how the film doesn't have any gratuitous violence or even blood. Honestly it could be rated PG-13 with some edits.

[@Ana36377]

@@Samuel-us5tz Funny you say that Oppenheimer could be PG-13 with some edits… because the full, three-hour, unedited version is PG-13 in my country (Indonesia). Both Barbie and Oppenheimer were, which I doubt contributed to the success of both, but it does prove the point how there’s a little bit of overlap between the two’s target audience.

[@johnnyparellax491]

I think the biggest point of success for both movies and what studios fail to see is: passion. Both movies were unapologetically passionate for the stories they want to sell, it wasn't so much about marketing ip or empty scripts just trying to fill seats. They really wanted to tell a unique story and make something beyond themselves.

[@K0m30ng]

Exactly, I'm kinda worried to see if Mattel will take all the wrong lessons in making their next toy movie adaptation just for money instead of passion. Barbie had a solid story and decent characters so the movie managed to justify its existence rather than just a big toy commercial whereas their next projects, some of them don't really need a huge story for a big movie like Uno or Magic 8 Ball

[@DarknessTheNightFury]

I actually have a big story idea for Uno. But I won't disclose it.

[@grungeisdead8998]

The monopoly movie is gonna be hype

[@gisela_oliveira]

@@K0m30ng Magic 8 ball seems like a theme for a bad horror movie, where the ball tell you are going to die next and you need to find a way to pass the destiny to someone else.

[@mhawang8204]

@@gisela_oliveirahonestly if they make a fun horror movie out of that in the style of Goosebumps or Are You Afraid of the Dark I wouldn’t be against it.

[@Sketch105]

Not everyone has a Marvel shirt in their wardrobe, but a lot of people had something pastel to wear for Barbie, or something nice and black to wear for Oppenheimer. It just worked on a level where it was accessible to such a wide range of audience.

[@mcelwin8747]

People didn't go to wach Barbie because they had pink in their wardrobe, and people didn't go to see Oppenheimer because they had black in their wardrobe.

[@jebalitabb8228]

@@mcelwin8747you must not have gone to the theater to have that wrong opinion

[@crypticoolkid]

im dyeing my hair pink and black next week before i go out and watch them back to back lol (waiting for hype to die down)

[@Sketch105]

@@mcelwin8747 I think you missed the point.. People felt like this was an event, and they made it an event and got dressed up. I went to several theatres where everyone was wearing pink/pastels/dresses and people were going in suits/all black to Oppenheimer.

[@noelpathiyil3815]

@@mcelwin8747 people went because it became kind of a big cultural event and wearing pink and black was definetely part of the cultural event

[@benwasserman8223]

The irony of this cinematic moment is how it began as a middle finger. I’m pretty sure WB dropped Barbie the same day as Oppenheimer to spite Nolan, yet they end up complimenting each other unusually well.

[@Thisthat1234]

In what way did they “complement” each other ?

[@lssproductions3180]

Lol true

[@Wesleyminaker]

@@Thisthat1234because of the Barbenheimer phenomenon on social media. No one really saw that coming

[@jerryppih]

@@Thisthat1234 because ying and yang. Pink and Black. Grim vs fun. Both are regarded as extremely high quality by respected directors, yet completely opposite in tone.

[@hastyscorpion]

@@Thisthat1234 have you not been on the internet in the past few months? (or watch the video?) "Barbenhiemer" (tying the movies together) has been very successful on social media. Because of their drastically different tones and the juxtaposition of them coming out on the same day spawned a lot of memes. It's a ton of free publicity and got a lot of people interested in seeing the movies that otherwise wouldn't have been.

[@OuterGalaxyLounge]

The actual message we are sending to Hollywood from the success of these films is this: "For gods sakes, give us more variety in movies. Take chances." Hollywood will interpret this as: "Make more Barbie and Oppenheimer-like movies."

[@beanydoods9400]

I completely agree, I got the same vibe out of why people went nuts for these. Neither one is part of a franchise, so people got genuinely excited about them. Every big movie that comes out now just feels stale or is just part of something. Everyone’s tired of franchises. People want new things. I loved marvel at its peak, but now they could stop tomorrow, and I’d be fine with it

[@skepticalsmurf]

or play it safe by producing films featuring well known characters,series,etc...

[@MrLachapell]

Here waiting hollywood to literally make a Barbenhaimmer-esque movie Having a really colorful character in the first half and then the dark greedy character in the middle then they both unite to have a big CG battle against bug CGI villain

[@mopnem]

@@beanydoods9400Disagree, I think people LOVE franchisees as do I. What we don’t like is trash movies that tend to come from a bloated, no longer cares “franchise” - Like Fast X, trash trash trash

[@WolfvineGaming]

I mean I wouldn’t mind more Oppenheimer-type movies.

[@Izayuukan]

I loved it when Doom and Animal Crossing had their moment of unity, with fans of both franchises being really supportive towards one another. The crossover meme were so wholesome.

[@madelinelamunyon7215]

I was literally looking for this comment I was thinking about it when the whole trend started.

[@Specsboy1999]

​@@madelinelamunyon7215Same

[@wrestlerwannabe]

Doom Crossing was my first thought too.

[@klxo14]

We should’ve gotten a doomguy suit in animal crossing’s dlc

[@PeterParker-ff7ub]

no

[@williamdell-price2349]

Despite Barbie and Oppenhiemer being so different on paper, they are very similar. Both were big budget live action films made by auteur directors stacked with a list actors with a message of soical commentary. Thats why Barbenhiemr worked, it was appealing to the same audeince just with different athstetics

[@adampkalb]

This is why people tried to make Saw Patrol the next Barbenheimer movie premiere match, even though there is less overlap in audience and themes, so the only thing that Saw movies and both Paw Patrol movies really have in common is that they bring together actors from the United States and Canada.

[@colbystearns5238]

They also both happen to be products of the mid 20th century, with Barbie literally being so and Oppenheimer taking place back then.

[@K0m30ng]

Both movies also were produced by a husband and wife team

[@crystaleevee1334]

I was already interested in seeing both films (especially Oppenheimer, I had to see that on a big screen), but all the silly memes convinced me to do a double feature day and watch them both in theaters. It’s been a while since I did that and it was a lot of fun! It was kinda mind blowing how, even though they were completely different films, they had alot of similarities too and had great synergy with one another. (Both passion projects by directors, both opted for more practical effects over CGI, they even touched upon some similar ideas if you really think about it (how a creator’s creation has effected the world was the big one that stood out to me) ). Overall, if ever I pick up the Blu-rays, I’m definitely doing both films together again. …I’m also 100% convinced Hollywood will be taking the wrong lessons from this.

[@lawrencesmeaton6930]

Watching them together was fascinating. There was a LOT of synergy between Barbie's "Look how awful things are when it's all old white men in rooms making decisions!" theme and Oppenheimers "Oh no, look at all these old white men who are going to destroy the world!". I watched Oppenheimer second and it got a few chuckles out of me, viewed with my Barbie glasses on. Both excellent films though and I really enjoyed the passion on display in both.

[@CalmClamFam]

Hollywood just doesn’t understand what we want most of the time and gets things wrong. You made a good point with Barbenheimer having a lack of CGI, too. A lot of movies, especially superhero ones, rely so heavily on CGI models and effects that it gets so tiring and cheapens the experience

[@concept5631]

If there is one thing Hollywood is good at, its taking the wrong lessons.

[@sonoftheredfox]

3:40 - "These were movies that people were actually excited about seeing." That's the key to it all.

[@christianwise637]

Barbie and Oppenheimer probably would've still been massive hits if they were released on different days because people were already hyped to see them, both films were already highly anticipated films with interesting premises and popular and acclaimed filmmakers behind them. The Barbenheimer trend only happened because two highly anticipated films ended up being set to release on the same day, so trying to replicate that with films that no one is interested in seeing is only going to backfire

[@heyimjaytee]

the barbenheimer phenomenon honestly makes me wanna support the sag and wga strikes even more because look what happened when you allow amazing writers to write and actors to act and they should be paid diligently 😔

[@me-myself-i787]

But often their demands can be unreasonable. Like, forcing studios to have more writers per room would reduce unemployment among writers, but it would also increase conflict between writers who have different visions about where the story should go, and would decrease each writer's control over the story, decreasing morale (because writers would have to help write a story which they would rather go in a different direction) and forcing them to make compromises which result in safer, less innovative scripts. Edit: I've looked up their demands again, and it seems that they aren't asking for too many writers. One writer per episode doesn't seem too bad.

[@heyimjaytee]

@@me-myself-i787individual writers usually do not have the control like that to take the story in a different direction. having more writers would allow teams to me more efficient, creative, and look at things from different perspectives and contribute ideas. idk why you think that if one writer doesn't get what they want that morale with decrease.. there are so many ideas, scenes, designs, etc that get cut and unused all of the time.. that isn't a reason to have less writers

[@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive]

@@me-myself-i787The best shows like Breaking Bad and the Wire were made that way. A big writers room ensures everyone is up to date and helps plan out the storylines and character arcs. How it is now is that the senior writers are isolated from the new writers who aren’t on the same page. And junior writers are promoted or given showrunner jobs without experience or ever having seen how they operate because they were isolated from them. Hence why the Golden Age of Television is fading. Read George R.R. Martin’s Not a Blog for his in depth experience and perspective for this.

[@deeznoots6241]

@@me-myself-i787that is not one of the demands of the strike. You can actually look the demands up if you want and the major studios response to each one, its very good ragefuel to make you mad at hollywood when you realise how shitty they are to their employees.

[@Bustermachine]

@@me-myself-i787 This honestly sounds more like spit balling reasons the writers are wrong more than anything else. More writers per room also means catching more problems and teaching more young talent so that they don't make obvious mistakes in their own writing later on.

[@mwhite9298]

In the words of Peter Griffin: "Love is like a fart. If you have to force it, it's probably crap." I think that wisdom applies here.

[@Attmay]

It was a scam to prop up a bad movie by attaching it to a good one.

[@enotsnavdier6867]

​@@AttmayYeah, Oppenheimer was really riding on a masterpiece like Barbie's coattails

[@professionalballsinspector2006]

Truly a family guy funny moment

[@caseys2698]

@@enotsnavdier6867roasted and eviscerated 🤣

[@grappling.enthusiast]

some mf referenced yo comment as a joke

[@NoirNameless]

What Hollywood shouldn’t learn is that dual releases aren’t gonna work the same as this one did. This was truly like magic man lol. A year of promo basically from memes, the movies being vastly different from each other, both having star studded casts, one is part of a giant IP (Barbie), one is directed by a guy who people would line up to watch direct paint dry, etc, this was the perfect stage for success. Seriously. And it can’t be replicated the same. But, knowing Hollywood, they’ll try it, and completely miss the point of why this worked so well like always.

[@passionateerrors]

It was a once in a lifetime event. You just HAD to be there. While I saw Barbie 3 times, I did the Barbenheimer double feature just once. It was perfect.

[@yol_n]

seeing barbie 3 times lol 💀

[@passionateerrors]

@@yol_n Ryan Gosling_

[@arnoldfreeman2885]

I actually think it’s perfect. It’s like how Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies were originally billed as a double feature. This time was unintentional though

[@MelissaBlue]

Same! I would have seen Oppenheimer a second time if I could have gotten to a showing at an IMAX 70mm theater, but sadly didn't work out.

[@genericgoon5179]

The whole way this played out. It's incredible. You are never gonna get this natural buzz again. Lightning is outta the bottle.

[@Attmay]

It’s not natural. It was forced on us by the media industrial complex to distract from the very real threat of nuclear war in the real world.

[@noelvalenzarro]

Doom and Animal Crossing

[@pascal590]

They said the same abt bird box

[@notsyzagts7967]

Word of mouth worked quite well for the Mario movie.

[@adrianmedeiros8431]

The ingredients for Barbenheimer are as follows Two movies with big, interested and prebuilt audiences (not stuff that's gonna have to win people over while it's playing on theaters) The two audiences are widely different people, but generally respectful and quiet. Even Christopher Nolans most passionate fans don't aggressively stan for him like some people do for say, videogame consoles Meme capacity. The overall vibe of both movies has to be clashing to a laughable degree. I'm talking the time Doom and Animal Crossing released at the same time A little push from some key people involved in either project (like Cillian Murphy going to watch Barbie and whatnot) You can't manufacture this. Hollywood is so out of touch that they completely forgot WHY super heroes are good entertainment

[@me-myself-i787]

But then why didn't SpiderMario: Across the Marioverse become a thing?

[@fatcat1414]

​@@me-myself-i787 Because comic books and video games belong in the same genre of nostalgic nerd stuff. The audiences already overlap so much that seeing both movies as a double feature wouldn't have been a funny or intriguing concept.

[@crazyfire9470]

Video games are more then just for nerds, right?

[@primarybufferpanel9939]

​@@me-myself-i787Point 3 - hilariously divergent audiences

[@adrianmedeiros8431]

@@me-myself-i787 those audiences overlap too much for this to become a thing. It would have to be something like Bridget Jones diary 3 and Guillermo del Toro's At The Mountains of Madness launching in the same day. Prebuilt audiences: check Wildly different: check Both fandoms mostly polite and respectful online: check I forgot about one key ingredient, though: very popular main actors. Now, all we need is for Renee Zelweger and Benedict Cumberbatch (perfect for this role, I swear) to get in on the joke and boom! Bridget Jones at The Mountains of Madness double feature.

[@NotaWalrus1]

Barbenheimer has happened before, kind of, with Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing: New Horizons spawning a bunch of attention for both properties when their release dates matched. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the "Isabelle hunts demons while the Doom Slayer catches butterflies" images helped move a bunch of copies of the games. The key, however, is that both games were highly anticipated on their own already. Nobody was doing similar memes when *checks Wikipedia* Moss: Book II and Tetris Effect: Connected released on the same day this year.

[@hex2_]

This is exactly it. Interesting stories that people want to go see, as well as a contrast between the themes, genre, or message of each movie. Also helps when you have solid, established actors attached to each project.

[@alexsiemers7898]

@@hex2_and directors. Nolan for me was a no-brainer, and while I can’t personally say I knew Gerwig’s work before Barbie I’ve heard really good things about them

[@void-creature]

It's also the fact that while both respective games/movies are extremely different in their appeal, they still have a large overlapping audience. The same can f.e. not be said about pawpatrol and saw

[@loganmacosko5908]

I think most people who were a part of the Animal Crossing/Doom Eternal crossover hype were planning on playing both games anyway. AC/Doom was not selling people on a game they wouldn't have bought otherwise On the contrary, I would've never seen the Barbie movie if I wasn't doing barbenheimer (I really enjoyed both movies, so don't take that the wrong way)

[@Anukii]

God, what a time, it was at the start of the pandemic too so both games profited heavily as we had the time to play. All the glorious memes from that time! 🤣💖

[@MattTheHuman9]

This was the movie version of Doom Eternal x Animal Crossing New Horizons and in the videogame industry it hasn't been recreated since. I think the dichotomy between the two releases is what makes it so iconic?

[@67Dragonball]

I think the great thing about the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon was that it was a great weekend for everyone regardless. I went on the Sunday with my younger sisters on the condition we see Oppenheimer first but it was clear everyone was there for Barbie, if not both. Couples, groups of guys and nerds in black and pinkish dolled up women and girl getups galore into the main halls and screenings. It was an eventful weekend.

[@villesanti1]

You're right about the Barbie Oppenheimer phenomenon happening organically. But now studios are going to try their worst to manufacture that phenomenon over and over again. Also, I wouldn't doubt that with the success of Barbie, Disney tries to buy Mattel.

[@pakhos]

yeah i watched a video called why barbieheimer will save cinema but after watching this video i think it will be a good trent that will be destroyed.

[@AndyDaltonmasterclass]

I think barbenheimer was probably the biggest breath of fresh air the cinemas have seen in a while

[@AllTheArtsy]

and hollywood will not learn anything from it. mattel will not learn anything from it. weve seen this happen again and again

[@TheJadedJames]

Barbenheimer is probably the first big wholesome fun internet movie thing in the collective culture since the Avengers Endgame-hype.

[@Attmay]

That’s not fresh air, that’s a fart.

[@Attmay]

What so fucking wholesome about dehumanizing men and arguing for the enslavement of men?

[@Tribrachidiumheraldicum]

@@Attmay I love how you're going comment to comment trying to troll, but also being influenced by the comment you just read, like you clearly just called it a "fart" because the comment you replied to was a Peter Griffin quote about farts.

[@ajzeg01]

If Daniel Kaluuya’s R-rated Barney movie is any indication, I believe Mattel’s strategy for their movies will be just giving people the IPs and letting them do whatever they want with them. That could actually be awesome.

[@_abracadabra]

R-rated Barney. I'm both intrigued and horrified.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

@Samuel-us5tz ​This has been the case since Joker though. That film was basically just Taxi Driver or The King of Comedy, but it was pushed by the marketing lot as it could be tied to a Batman-ajacent license.

[@me-myself-i787]

​@@Samuel-us5tzIt's not the only way. Pixar makes big-budget original films like Turning Red, Strange World, and Elemental. Problem is, they hired the wrong people and these films ended up being mediocre to bad.

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

@@TheSmart-CasualGamer *Taxi Driver-meets-The King Of Comedy [fify]

[@drdewott9154]

If thats the case, Mattel might actually be able to do a better job than most with this, simply by just letting directors and writers be able to tell a story if they have one without much interference as long as it ties back to their franchise in some way. This could probably be quite organic, but 40+ movies is still definitely too big of a stretch already. The thing movie studio executives never seem to understand is that success needs to grow organically. Start small, and work your way up instead of putting your eggs in one basket!

[@julianmars8968]

Barbie is way more of an interesting icon than any other toy on Mattel’s list of films ahead. When i first heard there’s gonna be a BARBIE movie directed by GRETA GERWIG, my little corner of the internet started speculating and theorizing on what the story could be and we were very focused on if and how it was going to tackle feminism and Barbie’s relationship to it. It had such intrigue because of the pop cultural status of the toy itself as what it symbolizes and what it means. You don’t really get that with say, the magic 8 ball. Nobody has written an analysis on the magic 8 ball from a sociopolitical standpoint. Im willing to be proven wrong if these films turn out to actually be great but as of now it seems they won’t have the same kind of hype or intrigue Barbie did

[@vilosey2013]

The idea of Mattel trying to make movies looks actually kind of interesting. Like the 8 ball movie, it looks so weird that it might actually work.

[@ariadnameza6594]

I thought the view master movie could be fun if it was a horror movie, similar to ‘look I found a cursed game’ creepypastas.

[@night1952]

Anything can work, but expect these movies to be a bunch of emoji movie clones.

[@choczynski]

The movie Clue with Tim Curry It did poorly at the box office but that became a beloved classic I don't know if my point was with this but it feels relevant to the discussion

[@jeff__w]

@@ariadnameza6594 The View-Master movie _has_ to be 3D (even if everyone _hates_ that type of movie).

[@davidjames579]

As Barbie showed, you don't literalize the product, you use it as a jumping off point.

[@h.ar.2937]

Full Barbenheimer analysis. I remember the progression of memes that led up to Barbenheimer: 1. Started off with Christian Bale/American Psycho memes that were trending for a while 2. Nov-Dec 2022 Individual memes of Oppenheimer and Barbie emerged (I recall when it first broke out that Nolan doesn't want to use CGI memes on that came out - one that stood out is a photo of Hugh Jackman after a nuclear explosion with a caption: "cameraman of Oppenheimer") 3. Jan-Feb 2023 Evolved into: Photos of American Psycho, Casino and other photos of men in suits with captions like: "4 tickets to barbie please" 4. Feb-Mar 2023 Evolved into: Random memes where clips of Christian Bale going crazy, Walking Dead's "You expect me to believe that?" memes emerged with captions like: "When they run out of tickets to Barbie" 5. March-April Was the earliest I could find where Barbie and Oppenheimer were mentioned in the same meme: It was a photo of Aunt May praying in Sam Raimi's Spiderman 1 with a caption "Trying to Watch Barbie movie when the Oppenheimer screening is playing right next to me" and then a photo of Aunt May's apartment exploding 6. April-May 2023 Evolved into "Two tickets to Barbie and Oppenheimer please" with other memes of (seemingly badass) characters in suits walking like Saul Goodman, Joker, Patrick Bateman and other characters with a caption: "Walking into Barbie after watching Oppenheimer" and the likes 7. May-June 2023 Ryan Gosling "Literally me" memes emerged 8. May-Jul 2023 Memes of pink explosions and memes with twists on "I am become death" quote emerged 9. Jul 2023 Barbenheimer memes officially became a thing after such a persistent and natural build up - mainstream media started picking up on memes as the movies became more relevant (due to their release dates) 10. Jul 2023 Cast of both movies started getting asked questions if they will watch the other movie and what not due to Barbenheimer memes as well as photo campaigns of Greta Gerwig and Margot buying tickets to Oppenheimer and Mission Impossible 7 ^These are based on posts I liked/saved on Instagram, individual memes I have shared with my friends and memes shared with me directly. I went to go through the dates and that's the data I have. Yours could be different depending on how your algorithm treats you. People may not recall, but the Barbenheimer memes, or the idea of watching both at the same time (since it wasn't actually called that back then), actually had the seeds planted a long time ago. It was only after the release dates were much closer that the memes re-emerged and became more relevant and continued to evolve naturally. More importantly, the memes basically were riding off an already trending meme of Christian Bale/American Psycho where we had pictures of men from American Psycho in busines suits asking if they could get tickets to Barbie. A lot of memes I've seen showed up around March-April were eventually reintroduced in June-July and had other memes build on them and their hype. Looking at that progression, I highly doubt that a studio can manufacture that same level of hype again, especially considering external factors and other previous trending memes. Factors like Nolan being attached to the Oppenheimer movie, Margot Robbie attached to the Barbie movie indicated that people actually wanted to watch these movies in the first place. Even if studios can somehow understand how memes evolve as well as which ones will become popular, they may end up succeeding in recreating some level of hype from memes (in addition to traditional marketing of course) - but without a solid foundation or more specifically, without an actual desire from fans to watch the movie(s) in the first place, then we will end up with a situation like Morbius where the joke is on studios but they just don't get it.

[@natalielatta6552]

I think you're forgetting when cast announcements for both movies were coming out. It was basically a big "who's who" was going to be in these for a while

[@egg_bun_]

This is really impressive. You should make your own video.

[@billbobbophen]

Bro has a PhD in Memeology

[@salthal]

wow thanks for the analysis

[@Temulgeh]

wtf did people really get the gosling memes that recently it feels like they've been around for at least a year on discord

[@mashit13]

I think Mattel overestimates the cultural capital of their other products. Barbie's ubiquity propels it beyond the realm of toyline and into a legitimately iconic piece of Americana. You can map real life social progress and trends through Barbie lore. The same is simply not true of polly pocket

[@Essdyn]

I've never even heard of Polly pocket

[@me-myself-i787]

On the other hand, Hotwheels could become the next Cars. (the 2007 Pixar movie which now has two sequels and inspired a highly profitable toyline despite being pretty mediocre compared with the other movies Pixar released around that time like Ratatouille and Wall-E) Or maybe even better, if the right people work on it.

[@dostawcagazu]

​@@me-myself-i787i fell like the Hot Weels movie will just be Fast and Furious right now, just propably more focused on the cars

[@James-vj5hz]

Lena Dunham is also involved in whatever Polly Pocket is supposed to be. That can't possibly help.

[@officialmonarchmusic]

@@me-myself-i787 JJ Abrams is supposed to be making it. In my opinion, he's not a good or interesting filmmaker and he seems to get worse with every movie. (Star Wars Episode 9 was one of the worst movies I've ever seen)

[@sarahbrown6493]

I think what made Barbieheimer such a perfect storm was the fact that the initial meme seemed to be more laughing about how these two movies had radically different subject matter and styling. Like on paper they are hilariously different. But after watching them they do feel...connected somehow. Not only are they both well acted and well made, they both have very strong emotional cores to their stories that stay with you after you leave the theater. Yes, they are radically different. But with both I saw a dedication to the craft of making a movie that is noticeably absent in many other modern movies. The lack of CGI, meaning real sets, real props, real...bombs (lol) made me realize how much I missed seeing that kind of commitment to art and a story. Sadly I don't think this is the takeaway studios will have. But it did make me realize that people aren't tired of movies by any means. They're tired of shallow stories that exist more for a bottom line then for the making of the story itself.

[@yaesu3080]

Hadn’t thought about how both movies have a sort of anti-CGI attitude in favor of more handcrafted sets/vfx, which goes in hand with their strong writer/directors. I remember someone saying that both stories have a strange connection by being about mid 20th-century phenomenon that have had lasting impacts on American culture to this day. Barbie is the perfect embodiment of modern capitalist-feminist ideologies that Gerwig sought to dissect, in a time where women feel overwhelmed with expectations to succeed in a modern world that is still mostly run by men. Oppenheimer and the bomb has changed the world and how nations approach war. Whenever we hear about tension with Russia or NK, or about mishandling of nuclear documents, that anxiety all comes back to one man. Both these films are a reminder of the past so that we may have perspective on the present.

[@sarahbrown6493]

@@yaesu3080 Yes! Great point.

[@johnathanarcher6999]

One thing that makes Barbie stand out from other Mattel toy IPs is that it has a long history of successful films, which a lot of people loved. The brand legitimately had a cinematic background, which i wonder if that helped audiences buy in. Things like Uno and Hot wheels don't have that, they only have the actual plastic toys

[@Luisfour]

Tbh it's really beautiful to me how people around the world so spontaneously joined an event that aesthetically combined an ironic performativity of the feminine (going to see Barbie in pink) with an ironic performative of the masculine (going to see Oppenheimer in black or in a suit)

[@eliquate]

You hit it on the head. You had two directors that have never made a bad film, putting out movies on the same day… that’s it… that’s the special sauce.

[@Spicie95]

Barbenheimer works because the movies stand in perfect contrast to each in terms of visuals and tone, while they both have star directors with great movies in their filmography, stellar casts, well-written scripts, and lots of passion from the costume and set design departments. Both Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan would be able to draw in a sizeable crowd with an original title, as could Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Cillian Murphy, and Robert Downey Jr. But most importantly for both films, is that they are both geared towards adult audiences (yes, some parents bring their kids to watch Barbie, but still). Saw Patrol won't really work, because there probably aren't anyone who wants to watch Saw, who also wants to watch Paw Patrol, or the other way around. It would have been a funny meme, if someone other than the studio behind those movies pointed it out.

[@Danishmastery]

And I even saw some parents bringing their kids (younger than 10) to watch Oppenheimer.

[@Spicie95]

@@Danishmastery Hopefully, it was for the child-friendly screenings, so they didn't have to sit still and quiet for the full three hours.

[@alexandredesbiens-brassard9109]

I think that the reason for Barbenheimer success was that they were both familiar and new, in a way the other big movies this year weren't able to reach. Transformers, Fast&Furious, Mission Impossible, even Indiana Jones, these all fell like "oh, they made another one". While with Barbenheimer, they were easy to grok concept "Barbie/creation of the atomic Bomb" that audience had not seen before. Same thing for Super Mario Bros.

[@jamiegreenberg8476]

spiderverse is such a good ip of its own that people didn't need to worry about people reaching it- the animation alone brought in big bucks for the first movie- of course people are going to see the sequel

[@basvriese1934]

I feel like one of the big parts of the interest for these movies is that they feel like movies that people (importantly the directors) really wanted to make. This reveals a certain sense of passion and the story being something wanting to be told, that really makes it feel like actual movies again, instead of the corporate soulless cash grabs that many movies feel like nowadays.

[@wayothefro3249]

The funniest thing about Barbenheimer is that WB purposefully set Barbie's release date for the same day as Oppenheimer just out of bitterness against Nolan in the hopes that Barbie being released the same day would hurt Oppenheimer's performance at the box office. Instead, the internet made the Barbenheimer meme which undoubtedly helped boost Oppenheimer's box office performance past expectations and all around, the reverse of what WB was expecting happened, as the two movie's same release date just helped Oppenheimer more than it did Barbie.

[@imanoldurango8213]

Even funnier is that they gave Nolan a $7 million check last month and their reason was “in good faith” 😂 they are begging for him back

[@K0m30ng]

@@imanoldurango8213 Apparently he did the Oppenheimer post production in the Warner's lot

[@freshshrimpproductions6047]

Yeah I wasn’t even planning on seeing Oppenheimer until the whole Barbenheimer meme began

[@lordtrigon1733]

It should be noted Barbie has also blown way past the highest expectations.

[@wren_.]

it’s not barbie vs. oppenheimer, it’s barbie AND oppenheimer

[@bigchez2855]

Barbenheimer works because it happened by complete accident. The internet saw these two movies about existentialism, but with completely different tones, and ran with the humor of them coexisting. If another Barbenheimer is to happen, it needs the same conditions.

[@ivandekad7249]

Rule #1: Most, if not all, studios will always learn THE WRONG LESSON from a successful movie.

[@wpaunan]

Yea...mattel is going to start cranking out movies based on their IP. "That's what the public wants! Movies about toys! They want a Hot Wheels movie!"

[@falconeshield]

Look at Tom Cruise. They thought Mission Impossible was gonna make money for Cruise alone, when all the fans for that franchise are dead.

[@AltraHapi]

​@@wpaunancan't wait for the UNO movie

[@brysonmoses2582]

I think the reason why barbenheimer worked was because most people already wanted to see both movies and when it became a trend to see both movies on the same day it wasn’t hard to see the appeal.

[@FedoraKirb]

That Magic 8-Ball Thriller sounds so amazingly goofy, like some kind of twisted AI Death Note, that I… actually really want to see it.

[@Coolcoolcooldude]

15 years ago Mama Mia and the Dark Knight opened on the same weekend and both were big hits.

[@nude_cat_ellie7417]

Better times.

[@wiremuwifebash]

Same with Hocus Pocus and Free Willy 15 years prior to that. And with Jaws 2 and Grease 15 years prior to THAT

[@dontwannaname]

The build up to the release of these films has been a long process. The release date for both were announced at least a year in advance and the cast lists being drip-fed to build the anticipation. Indeed, Empire magazine here in the UK have been reporting on it almost constantly since 2021. This is lightning in a bottle and any attempts to recreate it will be hastily put together poorly executed.

[@deemo64]

It's crazy, first i ever heard about Oppenheimer releasing on 7/23/23 was as a trailer before Nope, a whole 364 days earlier

[@TheOnlyAdamal123]

The Doom Eternal + Animal Crossing release walked so that Barbenheimer could run. The similarities these two releases share is that the games AND the movies were anticipated releases on their own. Even before the announced release dates. It helps that they have such opposite aesthetics as well. Doom eternal has killing demons with blood and gore. Animal crossing has cute animals building a community together. The internet loved the idea of swapping main characters and memed it to hell. Barbenheimer has the same thing.

[@farhanmarco7827]

I don't think we'll ever see something quite like Barbenheimer anytime soon. The idea of having these two in the same week is wholesome and we can see people have been enjoying such trend.

[@joeschianodicola1810]

saw Oppenheimer, loved it. felt like the first time in many years that a great, timeless piece of cinematic art was shown in theaters, and one that i had gone to see in a theater.

[@Psilocybin77]

God I love when corporate social media tries to get in on the fun. So painful.

[@drdewott9154]

Yeah exactly. There's an artform to create an actually interesting and engaging company account, you need to be able to have some edge and personality, and some ways to actually break some boundaries, even making fun of your own brand. The only 2 cases Ive seen where this works is Sonic the Hedgehog, and Wendy's!

[@christianwise637]

"How do you do, fellow consumers?"

[@charlie172011]

@@christianwise637 LMAO Burns as Jimbo style

[@alexsiemers7898]

@@drdewott9154and OperaGX

[@jamiegreenberg8476]

ngl the whole morbius disaster was amazing I loved seeing the movie with my friend when it was re-released

[@snelldor1474]

The case with Paw Patrol and Saw X is that it fits into two extremes that general audiences would probably be disinterested in. On one hand, you have an animated movie about a show for toddlers. And on the other, an over convoluted horror film which people only really watch for the gore.

[@lordtrigon1733]

You think the studio isn't aware of that? Maybe it was... just a joke?

[@umbra1091]

​@lordtrigon1733 lmao isnt that the coward's way out? claiming something was a joke when it clearly wasnt? maybe the social media manager thought they were making a joke but studios literally just see the broad strokes, mate

[@Carewolf]

I don't think they are trying to get people to watch both, but just create publicity so people will watch one.

[@officialmonarchmusic]

@@lordtrigon1733 Wishful thinking

[@lordtrigon1733]

@@umbra1091 One is made for preschoolers and the other is a hard R... It's an *obvious* fucking joke...

[@stephen456]

Of course studios will try to recreate this, thinking they can pull magic because something they don't understand worked - I'll never forget when Morbius came back to the theatres!

[@noinoimoon4295]

The good old days 😂😂

[@MrTables]

6:21 Barbenheimer literally started as a meme between film fans that slowly bled over into the general public, sort of like how A24 became slowly became a staple for hipsters after they had a super amazing run of arthouse movies in 2016 and 2017. These filmmakers had fanbases that were already invested in the outcome of these projects, and wanted to see them succeed. The Rise of Gru gentle minions thing was so short-lived because the movie wasn't very good, and it was based out of people who weren't *actually* passionate to see it in the first place. And it led to studios re-releasing Morbius and having it fail for a second time, but that was literally a meme born out of no one wanting to see the movie. But Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and the new Spider-Verse had memes that were circulated super heavily because those movies were astoundingly impressive and got people talking! I'm not even a fan of the MCU, but No Way Home is another example of how memes and speculation led to a movie being extremely hyped beforehand because it was based out of a franchise and characters people actually gave a shit about! Quality, originality, and genuine investment really does win when it comes to memes and internet culture affecting box office, and I do think a lot of studios are taking notice of that in how much animation styles have shifted in the past five years alone thanks to Spider-Verse and the fact Barbenheimer has been as impactful as it is! Some studios may definitely take some wrong lessons but honestly, I see the future of cinema being pretty bright thanks to how things are shaping up

[@munishpersaud3631]

in its core. barbie and her oppy had great writing and were fresh projects people were excited to see. this isn’t necessarily a rare phenomenon but not one that can so easily replicated artificially.

[@SparkzEnt]

Regarding SawPatrol, it feels more like a jab at Barbenhiemer from both Paramount and Lionsgate (though Lionsgate apparently did it first) than an attempt at recreating the hype of Barbenhiemer

[@Attmay]

Good. They deserve it for using crap to drag good movies down to its level.

[@lordtrigon1733]

Or just someone running the twitter account noticing the opportunity to make a joke? If people stopped taking shit so seriously, they might notice it was actually... pretty funny.

[@SparkzEnt]

@@lordtrigon1733 that's exactly what I am saying.... Plus, let's be honest.. Barbenhiemer worked because not only it was organic, but the films themselves, while contrasts of one another, both work within the guise of the joke. SawPatrol doesn't work because both films are complete radical contrasts of one another and not to the same degree as Barbie and Oppenheimer (Saw X is a R rated horror film in the Saw franchise while Paw Patrol Mighty is an animated family movie based on a popular preschool series and a sequel to the previous big screen film adaptation of the series). Barbie was a more widely accessible film (PG-13 rating be darned) while Paw's most likely going to appeal mainly to families with little kids who are fans of Paw Patrol (and any adult fans as well)... The joke was funny, but it doesn't work the same like Barbenhiemer, hence why no one is taking it seriously.. Now I am going to wait for November 22, so we can get Wishpoleon 😏

[@lordtrigon1733]

@@SparkzEnt It's not a campaign tho, the twitter team *knows* there's no crossover potential. That was the point of the joke they were making...

[@aydenjenkins8760]

I think what made Barbenheimer work so well was how much of an accident it was that they released on the same day. Two acclaimed directors making films that could not be more stylistically different, being released on the same day, and both being critical and commercial successes. That cannot be recreated, and I fear that studios won't get that. What studios should learn from Barbenheimer is to give directors more freedom to make the films they want to make. Take chances again with new and upcoming filmmakers.

[@bokoblinee1392]

Barbenheimer absolutely was organic, as you say, I'm highly doubtful any studio would be able to artifically recreate it. If only they would take away the real reason Barbenheimer translated from meme to hit: both movies are fresh and exciting worlds from good directors with a vision.

[@Attmay]

No it wasn’t. It was gaslighting on a mass scale. Stop defending this crap and start demanding accountability.

[@trystero1729]

@@Attmaywhat are you even talking about

[@danielorellana1666]

Saw both, and I think as someone who wants to see something new and different, it was a breath of fresh air. From loving Interstellar, and wanting something that had more stakes, and deeper meaning; to wanting something that was funny but did not have a romance or super hero baseline to it was why I liked watching Barbie!

[@AhanaNags]

American Girl is such a weird thing for Mattel to add to their lineup. They already made movies for the popular characters, and they still make them for the limited edition Girl of the Year dolls!

[@Matthew_Murray]

I find the Barbenheimer phenomenon really interesting since we also saw a version of it in gaming pretty recently in 2020 with the release of Animal Crossing and Doom. There is something about two things that are polar opposite being released on the same day that generate this natural energy online.

[@lilsebastian2209]

Just to take a dimension of how big this weekend was, in my country (argentina) barbie became the biggest pre-sale in history, surpasing spiderman no way home. Sadly, not many people are understanding Oppenheimer is about...I've seen many people that think is an emo movie because of tik tok and I think that will take some people off the movie theater. So, this trend it's a double bladed knife

[@weird-guy]

In my country was one of the biggest opening with 2.5million euros, Barbie 1,1 million euros and Oppenheimer 579 thousand euros

[@IsaacV24]

Regardless of which we prefer, I think we can agree that this was the best weekend for movies in a very long time.

[@Attmay]

No, it isn’t. This is the worst weekend for movies ever. It makes me wish movies had never been existed, and that Thomas Edison had been aborted!

[@Woynich]

Thomas Edison has done worse things than help with the invention of the motion picture projector.

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

@@Woynich #justice4Topsy

[@squeen666]

@@Attmaydo you need a hug or

[@kirbyinhalesjotaro4471]

I find it interesting how Barbenheimer memes started completely differently. At first the jokes were that this would be a “loyalty test” to see if boyfriends would give up watching Oppenheimer to watch Barbie with their girlfriends. I just find it interesting how the memes shifted so quickly.

[@TechnoColoredMuffins]

the only trend i want to keep is wearing themed outfits! ive seen a couple anime movies in theaters, so cosplay is common at those showings, but i love seeing the enthusiasm from mainstreamer audiences.

[@dr.wolfstar1765]

I have been saying if Hollywood wants to make real money they should create a movie that ends with the main character having to make a truly tough choice. Then make two movies that show the course of options that happen and have the fans fight. Tell the fans that whatever movie gets the most money is how the third movie concluding the trilogy will follow that storyline.

[@demetriom9078]

Ah, yes. The Mass Effect strategy.

[@dr.wolfstar1765]

@demetriom9078 yea but we could get alot of cool results. Like imagine if the force awakens ended with Ray having to choose light or dark side. Where we get a movie watching Ray kill Luke and liea using force lightning. It be really cool to see the fans debate the dark or the light side

[@_abracadabra]

I love this idea of "gamifying" films, like a more large-scale version of Bandersnatch (a choose - your - own - adventure experiment that aired on Netflix).

[@paulkyle]

@@dr.wolfstar1765problem is you essentially have to make TWO movies instead of just one and financially it's a suicidal gamble

[@paulkyle]

because it isn't just about the money, you'd have to write two different scripts, decide how to split theatre showings and a bunch of other stuff

[@SpammytheHedgehog]

They both had amazing openings.

[@cheddarssalad1230]

The underlining thing was that Barbenheimer were helmed by well regarded creative teams that seemed to care about the films they made. Not only did the public latch onto the stark contrast between the films but were intrigued by 2 studios releasing their best efforts on the same day. The 10th Saw movie doesn’t scream effort. Barbenheimer reminded us that movies can try and can be different.

[@bradleythornock8627]

People weren’t clamoring for just any movie about Barbie or Oppenheimer, they were excited about the directors being given a seeming green light to make an original movie using their unique voices

[@justinmacmahon]

Personally, I think no matter how hard a studio tries they’re not going to be able to recapture genuine hype for two writer/director driven films. Studios need to focus on telling a real story. That is what audiences want

[@BlazeMakesGames]

I feel like a lot of companies are just going to try and focus on pairing opposites together but I think that part of the appeal of Barbinheimer and Doom Crossing is that there's a surprisingly large overlap between the potential audiences between those opposite projects. Animal Crossing has widespread appeal from all kinds of gamers, and that includes a lot of more 'hardcore' gamers that would be hype for Doom Eternal as well. So there's a fairly large overlap there. Similarly Barbie is clearly appealing to a lot of people and Oppenheimer is a Nolan film so it was always gonna be huge. I think that part of the punchline is that people actually wanna go see both projects. By comparison "Saw Patrol" feels cringe because the overlap between people who would unironically want to go watch a Paw Patrol Movie and the people that would want to go see a gorefest like Saw, is probably close to 0 save for a handful of parents who are taking their kids to one out of obligation. And even that's kinda stretching the point.

[@HeisenbergFam]

Barbenheimer is as iconic as Mario & Luigi, the "im death, destroyer of Barbie worlds" line is cherry on top

[@Racecarlock]

(Giant explosion) That... is my creation.

[@Attmay]

Mario and Luigi are iconic. Barfbie is a shitty boomer relic whose creation was built on fraud, gaslighting, and slut-shaming.

[@rubywest5166]

"Now we are all Barbie girls"

[@avoidant560]

I think Barbenheimer happened because both titles hold equally significant intrinsic meaning inside our collective knowledge. One is a story about the creation of the strongest weapon humans have come up with so far. The other is about a line of toy dolls that has accompanied us through two or more generations. Barbenheimer would be hard to artificially recreate because, in essence, you probably need that level of opposing driving ideas from both movies on top of releasing at the same time and having both production teams equally talented and experienced.

[@helixier6629]

studios planning a "serious movie" and a "happy movie" together is probably the best thing to happen out of barbenheimer cause it will mean will be getting a little more diversity and variety when they line up their movies together to try and recreate a similar event with simiar movie contrasts

[@IcarusSuite]

I saw Barbie once and Oppenheimer twice. The build up for these movies simply cannot be replicated. Both movies have director pedigree but also the cast names. Robbie as Barbie is just casting perfection and that alone makes people want to check the movie out but when Ryan Gosling was announced as Ken and those first images were leaked, internet went crazy and the memes started to boost the hype for the movie. That's one key in my opinion. How memeable Barbie was since the start. On Oppenheimer's side tho, that's all on Nolan. No one was waiting that movie for RDJ or Cillian Murphy or the Einstein cameo, it was all Nolan and both Oppenheimer and Barbie complemented each other beautifully, organically and what's most important, spawn the memes that has flooded the internet for months making its release date truly an event. Also both movies didn't suck and that helped a ton.

[@diodora2381]

I remember listening to Yahtzee from Zero Punctuation talk a while back about how the video game industry tries to convince its audience that they want what makes them more money when in the end of the day, people just want good games. And the same words ring true for movies too. This push to try and find the infinite money generator. "Oh if we just focus on well known IPs that's a surefire success.", "Oh we'll make a whole cinematic universe, that way people will watch everything.", this push to try and find the way in which they can guarantee success. What strikes me as kind of funny is that how much this distracts from making a quality film from a creative director that makes a good movie that people actually want to watch. People will always want good movies, but business heads think they can somehow find trends and use that to somehow hack the audience to make more money.

[@EggFighterXB-]

Well at least movies don't have microtransacrions

[@me-myself-i787]

​@@EggFighterXB-For now... "Boost Miles' power for 20 Spiderbucks so he can escape his chair in his room and go to the Collider and defeat KingPin."

[@me-myself-i787]

The funny thing is, being part of a large franchise can actually make movies less successful. For example, the main reason I'm not planning on watching Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 is because I haven't watched the first two and our family doesn't have a Disney+ subscription so I can't watch the first two.

[@diodora2381]

@@me-myself-i787 While I appreciate the sentiment, that's not usually how that works. It's rare that being a part of a large franchise works against you, which is why movie studios will not stop doing them. They keep chugging along until the money machine is dry.

[@nosidezero]

Barbenheimer created one of the most memorable summers for mainstream films in a while, and I doubt we'll see something like this again in a long time.

[@Attmay]

I hope we never see it again. I hope Warner Bros. goes out of business along with Disney. I hope the entire city of Burbank becomes disincorporated. I hope California loses its statehood. I hope Christopher Nolan spend the rest of his career directing directing video kiddie movies and I hope everybody involved in Barfbie ends up in Gitmo Bay for terrorism against a protected class. I’m not just boycotting this movie, I’m boycotting everybody who refuses to boycott it.

[@tiamystic]

@@AttmayDamn you mad mad

[@christianwise637]

​@@AttmayChrist dude, what did these two films do to hurt you so much? Or do you just get off on being an insufferable uptight miserable killjoy?

[@joesimpson4522]

I think that Mattel is going overboard, but I have to admit - the Magic 8 Ball horror flick sounds rad. There aren't many PG-13 horror movies, so it could be a great gateway into the genre for younger viewers.

[@K0m30ng]

I just hope they learned their lesson in what make Barbie good and successful. That movie could've been a cash grab IP but it managed to justify its existence with its own solid story

[@me-myself-i787]

Yeah. The only horror movies for young audiences I can think of are Monster House (which was mid) and Coraline (which was actually pretty good).

[@mokaccinooo]

I honestly think that the reason Barbenheimer not only existed but was successful was because both movies had: 1) A clear aesthetic 2) Two aesthetics that were contrasting If both movies have a similar aesthetic or "vibe" (or just dont have one at all), I don't think something like Barbenheimer can happen between them imo

[@lucasqualls5086]

The problem with recreating it is that Barbenheimer took off in part due to how good each movie was individually as well. The themes contrasting was a key part, but the movies needed to be something worth watching too. Saw X and Paw Patrol won't do that, not just because they'll both be mid, but because nobody wants to unironically sit through an actual made for kids movie, as well as horror being a genre many don't like, let alone the 10th movie in that series.

[@lssproductions3180]

This is pretty timely for me since I saw Barbie earlier today (I didn't 100% love it, but it was a lot of fun). I could see a repeat of Barbenheimer happen, but I don't think it'll work if people try to make it happen. If it does happen again, I think it'd have to be unintentional, be audience driven, and have both films be eagerly anticipated/well known about

[@somethingclever4297]

Funnily enough. This same thing happened before. Remember with doom and animal crossing.

[@Attmay]

What about people who would’ve wanted to see one but not the other but now want to see neither because of this?

[@SpammytheHedgehog]

It had taken a while for me to learn that Harley Quinn was Barbie and that Iron Man and Commissioner Gordon from Batman Begins was in Oppenheimer.

[@artarealmblazer8452]

Don’t forget Scarecrow himself.

[@planescaped]

In the future all shall be known and judged by their relation to superheros and the quality of their cinematic universes.

[@brandenwalton2914]

Do you mean Scarecrow in respect to Batman Begins? Gary Oldman was Commissioner James Gordon in that film, while Cillian Murphy was Scarecrow

[@Soulful_Sorrow]

​@@brandenwalton2914I just looked it up, Oldman played President Truman. That guy is a chameleon, for real.

[@brandenwalton2914]

@@Soulful_Sorrow Holy crap! For real?! I didn't know Oldman was in Oppenheimer. I really gotta get with the boys to see this film now.

[@Crzypengu]

Barbenheimer was the most fun weekend I had at the movies. Both movies are set in completely different directions with their stories, but felt original and exciting to watch.

[@PanzerMan332]

Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom Eternal were two opposite releases that attracted one another. They were both hyper anticipated AAA games that people were genuinely excited for. Fans of one were leaving their comfort zones to try the other, it led to a massive boom in fan art for both games, and even if you didn't care about that stuff, at the end of the day you still had two enjoyable games that combined appealed to a wide swath of people to ease the stir crazy tension of quarantine. If it was some sterile corporate plan to push these games together, nobody would've looked twice at it.

[@sinom]

Barbie and Oppemheimer were both movies made for a similar enough audience just in different genres (one being a comedy and the other a drama) Both movies that can be watched and enjoyed by adult or adolescent audiences who enjoy movies. Meanwhile paw patrol and saw are just completely different demographics. One is a kids movie with not much going for it, the other is the tenth installment in an extremely long running franchise that basically only fans of the series will go watch focusing on tension and body horror. These films simply are not compatible in any way

[@millystars]

the problem with ‘sawpatrol’ is that they’re not both incredibly marketed movies with lots of previous hype created by amazing directors. barbie and oppenheimer are both great films on their own with a surprisingly similar target audience. without the barbienheimer trend, i probably wouldn’t have gone to see oppenheimer (tickets are expensive) but i was happy to as i know that nolan is a great director and the movie has a lot of acclaimed actors so i’d enjoy it nonetheless. with sawpatrol, there’s not that much of a hype for the saw movies anymore seeing as there’s been tons of them already. and paw patrol is literally just catered towards toddlers, that’s their only audience. they’re vastly different films who the average audience of one would never go to the other, no matter how big the hype on social media (toddlers would get traumatised, saw fans would get bored etc). however, barbie and oppenheimer are both emotionally mature films with great directors that have been hyped for a few years. that’s the main difference between them, if anyone reads this thanks for reading my little rant

[@lordtrigon1733]

Paramount is aware there is little-to-no crossover between the fanbases of Saw and Paw Patrol, their twitter team were just making a little joke.

[@millystars]

@@lordtrigon1733 yeah i know lol i just like to overthink

[@A.corona717]

I watched both films. Had a really good time at the movies seeing people wear pink and people being quite for 3 hours. Hopefully we get more movies like this in the future (if studios listen and learn)

[@jmalmsten]

I can only look back at how I reacted when we all realized that they were due on the same day. We laughed that the giant prestige oscar bait film was going to have only Barbie to contend with. I looked at the cast list of Barbie, realized it probably wasn't going to be just a cash grab. Then the first trailers dropped. And I realized we might have a true underdog thing going here. Very early on, I joked about how I would have to buy tickets to both on the same day. And I wasn't alone. And as release came nearer. The day had gotten a name. A silly name, and memes started flowing. I do not think it'll be easy to replicate this in a short frame of time. Barbenheimer had a good year to let it sink in. And the juxtaposing of plastic ditsy beauty vs grim atomic apocalypse, both with half a century's worth of history with mass public. Everyone knows about both and has strong opinions about them. It's gender, style, perceived maturity everything clashing perfectly. To then manufacture. Force in a month or two. Another one. Where the masses aren't interested in seeing either film? I'm dreading the reports of animators being forced to crowbar in references to adult humor in Paw Patrol during the last days extending picture lock. And last minute reshoots to include some random dog thing in Saw. Both films have niche audiences that love them, I guess. But I highly doubt they would benefit quality wise by aiming for blockbuster expectations.

[@Chris951021]

You nailed it perfectly.

[@Kira1Lawliet]

The main thing that movie studios never seem to learn is that their own involvement usually kills the hype that people have for the things they produce. I remember when the MCU was something that people got excited about, and now, mainly because the studios kept pushing and pushing it so hard into people's faces, now people hate the MCU. And superhero movies in general. Barbenheimer took off because it was both silly and spontaneous, and people enjoy that feeling of social cohesion around something light-hearted. The moment studios try to manufacture that, people will respond negatively, because we don't like corporations, and we don't like being manipulated to feel good by them. The moment you try to force that, you've already ensured it will never happen.

[@robertlee2092]

Took my daughters to Barbie and we loved it, and from the sound of it, the rest of the packed theatre did too. It’s the most fun I’ve had at the movies in years. Not necessarily the best movie I’ve seen in this time period, but it was absolutely the most fun I’ve had going to the theatre in at least a decade. It was probably the liveliest theatre my kids have ever been in. However, between tickets and snacks, it cost me nearly $100 to take myself and my two kids to a single movie. That’s not really the kind of money I have to spend right now. Plus, my kids originally vetoed it when they found out we’d have to go to the theatre to watch it instead of being able to see it at home. We’re all glad that we eventually decided to go, but it’s getting increasingly rare for us to be able to do this. I’m pretty sure this is the same case for most families right now, and it’s ridiculous to assume we’re going to be equally excited to spend this kind of time and money to see Uno or the 40th Marvel movie or whatever.

[@The_GlitchWitch]

I definitely think the Barbenheimer event is something that can be replicated in the future, but like you mentioned the reason it worked so well was because it happened organically. These were two movies made by competing studios that normally would be vying for audience attention on opening weekend. But the audiences themselves decided these weren’t movie releases that needed to be going against one another, but that could coexist together and both be successful. Studios are definitely going to take away the wrong lesson from this, just proving how short sighted they really are and there’ll be several cringey attempts to make something like this happen again, but it’ll just be forced and ultimately fall on its face.

[@BlkZard]

I’ve only seen Barbie so far and it was very fun. Good message. I agree with the point that both are driven by the expertise of the writing and directing. Other movies won’t be able to replicate this unless they’re… Well, good (or at least have something positive in their perception).

[@ZeroSmoke.]

"Good message." 😂

[@SpammytheHedgehog]

Next thing you know, Disney wants to buy the Barbie franchise.

[@neutral_narr]

😂

[@imanoldurango8213]

They’d have to buy Mattel 😂

[@xicoxnicx]

Disney ain’t in the place to buy anything rn

[@Attmay]

Let them have it so they can both destroy each other like they deserve. Hate speech against men is verbal terrorism. By refusing to demand accountability, that is complicity.

[@kitty_visionary_meow]

Disney does not have the funds for Mattel.

[@ajaybathula37]

You are 100% right about IP driven movies making directors losing their uniqueness and quirks. Guy Ritchie is one of the more unique directors with his own sense of style and moviemaking. It was visible in King Arthur, The Gentlemen, Snatch, and other movies of his. But Aladdin didn't feel like a Guy Ritchie movie. It has none of his quirks.

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

I know the movies are very different from each other in narrative/tone/context, with Barbie playing with 80s - 2000s aesthetics & Opp more grounded in the 1930s-40s, but both the Barbie doll + the Bomb essentially capture integral aspects of the dawn of the post-WWII "Atomic Age"-era zeitgeist as concepts/conceptualized objects, & represent this space for new paths of human potential carved out by crises. Both work on "idea maps" effortlessly, becoming the central hubs of wheels supporting lots of other different ideas + imagery, radiating from them like spokes. They are inherently self-contradictory, in so many ways, esp in both needing WWII to be birthed, while representing a total break in the public consciousness with what had come before. Actually, the 2 movies make absolute sense to whether fit this moment + each other. Saw Patrol just...isn't that.

[@chopper8209]

We had something similar happened before where Animal Crossing New Horizons & Doom Eternal came out on the same day 3/20/2020 and the internet made memes about it, even the official Doom account joined in on the fun.

[@SpammytheHedgehog]

It took me a while to learn that Josh Peck from Drake & Josh was in Oppenheimer.

[@RileyDia]

You can tell that a conservative helped produce it (James Woods) because Casey Affleck's creepy self showed up

[@frogeater8659]

The next Barbenheimer should be Wishpoleon (Disney’s Wish and Ridley Scott’s Napoleon) in Thanksgiving.

[@Attmay]

Turn off this crap. It stops now. This was a sham and a fraud, and there needs to be criminal prosecution.

[@Bird_in_a_Trenchcoat]

I honestly wouldn’t have seen either if it wasn’t for barbenheimer. Like I was vaguely interested in both but not enough to see them individually. But with the pure silliness of the trend it felt worth it and I ended up really enjoying both films

[@scottjacobs8178]

1. Be creative 2. Make us think 3. Surprise me with something that feels old and make it new again 4. Hire great actors 5. Give them a great script 6. Don’t be afraid to take chances and make fun of things 7. Leave room for interpretation 8. Highlight things that feel big but in different ways - Barbie is a huge nostalgia tug, Atomic bomb is an iconic and complicated invention 9. Teach us something 10. Find fresh voices 11. Don’t stop the second a film fails. Keep throwing stuff at the wall