- 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer' competed at the box office
- Producers didn't want to lose ground
- THIS is what Margot Robbie and the team was asked to do
During a candid chat for 'Variety' magazine’s 'Actors on Actors,' Robbie recounted a high-stakes call from 'Oppenheimer' producer Charles Roven, who dared to suggest she shift the 'Barbie' release date to avoid a box office collision with Christopher Nolan's atomic bomb masterpiece. Can you imagine?
Margot tells all
"One of your producers, Chuck Roven, called me," Robbie dished to Cillian Murphy, her conversation partner and fellow actor. "And he was like, ‘I think you guys should move your date.’" But our fierce Barbie wasn't having it! "We’re not moving our date. If you’re scared to be up against us, then you move your date," she retorted with the confidence of a Hollywood heavyweight.
Roven, the mastermind behind Nolan's 'Dark Knight' trilogy and Robbie's collaborator on 'The Suicide Squad,' stood his ground. "We’re not moving our date. I just think it’d be better for you to move," he insisted. But Robbie was unshakable: "We’re not moving!"
The plot thickened when Universal first penciled in 'Oppenheimer' for a July 21, 2023 release, only for Warner Bros. to announce the "Barbie" debut for the very same day. This move sent shockwaves through the industry, as it marked Warner Bros.' first face-off with Nolan since their "Tenet" pandemic release spat.
Robbie, however, saw the dual release as a "really great pairing," and the audience agreed, sparking the viral "Barbenheimer" phenomenon. The result? "Barbie" strutted to a staggering 1.4 billion worldwide, becoming Warner Bros. ′highest−grossing release ever, while "Oppenheimer" detonated a record−breaking 950 million worldwide, crowned as the highest-grossing biopic in history.
"I think this is a really great pairing, actually. It’s a perfect double billing." Murphy replied, "That was a good instinct."
"Clearly the world agreed," Robbie said. "Thank God. The fact that people were going and being like, “Oh, watch Oppenheimer first, then Barbie.' I was like, 'See? People like everything.' People are weird."
"Christopher Nolan was always determined that it would be released in the summer as a big tentpole movie," Murphy said elsewhere of the release date. "That was always his plan. And he has this superstition around that date, the 21st."
Murphy chimed in, praising the unexpected success: "In fact, that summer, there was a huge diversity of stuff in the cinema, and I think it just connected in a way that you or I or the studios or anybody could never have predicted."
Also interesting:
Initially, the 'Barbie' date generated buzz as Warner Bros. was opening a film opposite a new Nolan tentpole after Nolan left the studio for the first time in two decades to make 'Oppenheimer' at Universal.
"And I think it happened because both movies were good," Murphy adds. "In fact, that summer, there was a huge diversity of stuff in the cinema, and I think it just connected in a way that you or I or the studios or anybody could never have predicted."
"You can’t force that or orchestrate that," Robbie says.
It's clear that when Hollywood's leading lady stands her ground, she means business! And the world can't get enough of Robbie's gutsy move and the "Barbenheimer" craze that followed!
