Barbie is projected to beat Oppenheimer in box office showdown

In the red corner, you have the fun and light comedic satire. In the blue corner, you have the impactful drama. Let’s get ready to rumble.

This summer pits head-to-head two movies that are highly anticipated for very different reasons. The action drama auteur Christopher Nolan brings his vision of impactful historical drama, Oppenheimer, to theaters the same weekend that Academy Award-nominee Greta Gerwig unpackages her comedic satire, Barbie, to audiences. The demographics of both films couldn’t be wider, and yet, both films have the potential to become successes on the weekend of July 21. When it was revealed that these two movies open on the same day, there have been giggles online made at the notion that these particular projects are battling.

The Hollywood Reporter is now reporting that prelim tracking is projecting Barbie to come out on top that weekend. Although it sounds like a cheesy concept on the surface — a live-action Barbie movie — the approach the filmmakers took gives the impression that the film has more going for it, especially considering the surprising amount of acclaimed talent behind it. It became an online sensation — a joke that you can both laugh at and with.

Oppenheimer sports its own amount of acting and filmmaking muscle. However, history isn’t too kind to heavy dramas released during the summer movie season. The appeal of the film may also suffer from a reported three-hour runtime. Additionally, the revelation of Oppenheimer receiving an R rating shrinks the audience bubble since lower-rated films have a tendency to draw a larger variety of people.

To add a bit of irony, Barbie is being released by Warner Bros., the studio that had partnered with Christopher Nolan throughout his career and gave him Clint Eastwood-type carte blanche on his projects since the massive success of The Dark Knight. Oppenheimer will be the first feature he would release with Universal since leaving the Warners studio after disputes over his previous film, Tenet. Nolan, being a theater-going purist, was livid about the company experimenting with shorter time frames between playing at movie houses to streaming at normal houses. Nolan signed with Universal with stipulations that included screening the movie in theaters for a certain amount of time. Interestingly, Universal would make one of their bigger franchise films, Fast X, available on digital just three weeks after premiering in theaters.