Barbie Vs Oppenheimer: Which Film Won Opening Weekend?

The weekend of July 21, 2023 was a huge one for moviegoers, as it ushered in the age of a double release commonly referred to as "Barbenheimer." Two of the year's most highly anticipated movies, "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" — directed by Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan, respectively — released that Friday, and fans rushed to see these two enormous summer blockbusters. In the end, both moves fared well critically and commercially, so it seems like everyone won in this scenario.

"Barbie" outstripped "Oppenheimer" at the box office, with Gerwig setting the new industry record for a female director thanks to the film's $162 million haul, but Nolan's three-hour historical drama wasn't exactly a slouch, earning $82 million on its own. All in all, the weekend itself was the fourth-best opening weekend in cinematic history. Box office hauls aside, this was just... a really good weekend for moviegoers and artists alike, and in the midst of a double strike between SAG-AFTRA and the WGA, it goes to show that movies made by directors at the top of their game with all-star casts can still become major successes — and, to that point, that studios should be compensating those artists fairly.

So who "won" the battle of Barbeinheimer? Was there even a battle in the first place? And what did audiences think of the two major summer movies?†l

Between the two, the Rotten Tomatoes score is really close — but "Oppenheimer" edges out "Barbie" if you go purely by the numbers. On Rotten Tomatoes, "Oppenheimer" boasts a 94% in both its audience and critic scores, while "Barbie" is just below it, also earning 90% from both. "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" also both earned A scores from CinemaScore.

The two movies couldn't be more different, in case you're unfamiliar with either of their concepts. Gerwig's take on the "Barbie" mythos is a candy-coated film about how the patriarchy adversely affects everybody — even men! — stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in its lead roles as Barbie and Ken, who end up leaving Barbie Land for the real world to figure out why things are going wrong in their utopia. "Oppenheimer" is Nolan's introspective look at the father of the atomic bomb, with J. Robert Oppenheimer played by the director's regular collaborator Cillian Murphy and a stacked supporting cast that includes everyone from Emily Blunt to Gary Oldman to David Krumholtz. Both movies are worth seeing, to be sure — and in the end, there wasn't really a "battle" between the two to be "won," because fans found a way to make the best of the weekend.

The truth is, "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" won, and so did people who like all sorts of good movies. The weekend was rife with people attending both movies, which earned the portmanteau "Barbenheimer" thanks to tons of memes on social media. Even director Quentin Tarantino wasn't immune to the two movies' charms; he was spotted buying tickets to "Barbie" shortly after attending a screening of "Oppenheimer."

Everyone from journalists to casual moviegoers made a whole day out of both movies, with people arguing over the "correct" order in which to see these movies. The point is that, during an extremely uncertain time in the entertainment industry due to the double strikes and studios refusing to back down, Hollywood just had one of its best opening weekends of all time, because fans didn't want to have to choose between "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer." 

If you still want to make a day of it, "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" are both in theaters now.