Summary
Hollywood studios are already trying to replicate theBarbenheimerphenomenon, but it’ll be impossible to copy Barbenheimer because it wasn’t actually conceived as a marketing strategy. Although it started off as a meme, Barbenheimer overshadowed Hollywood’s biggest franchises and became the defining movie event of the year. In the weeks leading up toBarbieandOppenheimer’s simultaneous release, proverbial water coolers were abuzz with discussions of the two films. It felt like movies were a major part of the cultural conversation for the first time in years.
The memes started off making fun of the movies’ polar opposite tones and styles, with Greta Gerwig’sBarbiebeing a bright and colorful fantasy comedy and Christopher Nolan’sOppenheimerbeing a dark and dreary World War II epic.Oppenheimeris a realist work of historical record tacklingthe imminent threat of nuclear weapons, whileBarbieis an escapist work of pure blockbuster entertainment with big laughs and big feels in spades. On paper,BarbieandOppenheimerare two very different films. But at their core, they’re exactly the same kind of movie: the bold, distinctive vision of an acclaimed auteur filmmaker. It’s rare that an auteur is given a big budget and full creative control of a passion project, and much rarer that two of those movies are released on the same day.
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It’s a once-in-a-lifetime cinematic phenomenon – one that wasn’t manipulated by advertisers, but arose naturally from a moviegoing public eager to embrace original work by brilliant filmmakers – but that hasn’t stopped Hollywood from instantly trying to replicate it. Paramount and Lionsgate have both jumped on the bandwagon by trying to make “Saw Patrol” a thing,sinceSaw XandPAW Patrol: The Mighty Movieare both being released on September 29. There are countless reasons why Saw Patrol won’t be anywhere near as effective as Barbenheimer: the newSawandPAW Patrolmovies probably won’t be the artistic triumphs thatBarbieandOppenheimerwere, and there’s no crossover interest in the two films like there was withBarbieandOppenheimer.
While Paramount and Lionsgate are probably just having fun with the Saw Patrol gag and don’t expect it to actually catch on, it is an ominous sign that Hollywood is eager to replicatethe Barbenheimer phenomenon. The double-feature gimmick is a two-birds-with-one-stone marketing tool, because it promotes two movies at once. It worked wonders forBarbieandOppenheimer. But Barbenheimer will be impossible to replicate, because it wasn’t a conscious marketing strategy; it was created by the public.
How The Barbenheimer Competition Became Mutually Beneficial
Barbenheimer started off as a corporate competition. Warner Bros. resented Nolan for jumping ship to another studio after disagreeing with their mid-COVID streaming release strategy, so the studio scheduled its most highly anticipated and commercially viable upcoming film for the same date as Nolan’s next movie. Warners’ plan was for theBarbieaudience to cannibalize theOppenheimeraudience, but they didn’t count on so many moviegoers wanting to watch both. The filmmakers refused to be pitted against each other; they turned the competition into an unexpected double feature. Instead of spurring on the rivalry, the teams behind each movie promoted each other.
In the end, neitherBarbienorOppenheimer“won” the weekend; the real winner was cinema, which thrived culturally and commercially at a level it hasn’t reached since before the pandemic.Barbieunsurprisingly made more money, since it has a much broader appeal (and a shorter runtime, allowing for more screenings), but they’ve both been immensely successful.Oppenheimermight not have pulled inBarbienumbers, but it’s grossed a lot more than one would expect froma three-hour biopic of a physicist.
Barbenheimer began as a corporate contest, but it ended up being mutually beneficial. After Warners and Universal fell into this situation by mistake, every other studio is scrambling to find its own opportunities for counterprogramming on the release schedule. But they’ll never be able to catch lightning in a bottle the same way as Barbenheimer because this kind of thing can’t be forced on the public with creative advertising; it has to be created by the public itself.
Why Barbenheimer Can’t Be Replicated
It’s understandable why studios are hoping to recreate the Barbenheimer phenomenon – who wouldn’t want their upcoming movies to hit as big asBarbieorOppenheimer? – but it’s a futile endeavor. What makes Barbenheimer inimitable is that it was never consciously created in the first place. It wasn’t some master plan cooked up by the studios; it was just a happy accident. Studios have tried to market movies via memes before, and that’showMorbiusended up flopping at the box office twice. Viral memes can’t be manufactured by a corporate marketing department; they occur organically. If a Barbenheimer-style cultural phenomenon ever happens again, it won’t be because some marketing executives came up with it in a boardroom; it’ll be because the audience wants it to happen.
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