It has been a great weekend for cinema as two completely different offerings drove cinema lovers in by the hundreds of thousands to their local theatre, multi-plex, drive-ins, and IMAXs across the globe to watch either Barbie, Oppenheimer, or both. Many double viewings occurred, with the Hollywood elite also showing up to get a piece of both pies.
It doesn’t matter who you are, or how big you are in the movie industry, Barbenheimer fever is coming for you, and that was proven true of legendary director Quentin Tarantino who was spotted attending both films in one day. A photo was posted on Twitter which showed the director, with his Pulp Fiction co-writer Roger Avary, with a caption that read, “In Westwood after seeing Oppenheimer, Quentin Tarantino walks across the street and buys a ticket to see Barbie.“
The pair were seen going from the Westwood Village to the Regency Bruin Theatre, a theatre that was featured in Tarantino’s film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood which also featured Margot Robbie. The director sat in the very same theatre as Robbie’s character in the film, watching herself on the screen. It’s funny how things work out like that.
Tarantino’s official Twitter page for his podcast, Video Archives Podcast, retweeted the picture adding “Yes our boys were out last night doing what they love to do the most together, seeing movies.”
Avary posted his high regard for the Barbie showing on his Twitter page, (Tarantino is sadly lacking one) writing “The Barbie showing in Westwood last night had such an amazing audience, literally cheering the movie. Many of them were larping. I haven’t seen that in a while, and it was awesome.”
The Barbenheimer craze has stirred up a huge amount of publicity for both films, resulting in the fourth-highest box-office weekend in cinema history. This is the highest-grossing weekend since Thanos was finally defeated in Avengers: Endgame, though of course there are other films at play here too.
As expected, Barbie was responsible for the highest take-in of the two, making it the more commercially successful with this year’s biggest debut of $155 million, earning a global total of $337 million. Nolan’s Oppenheimer on the other hand, has received greater critical acclaim than Gerwig’s feature, but made $80.5 million, with a global total of $174 million. Again, absolutely nothing wrong with those numbers.
So if you haven’t already, you should follow Tarantino’s lead and catch both Barbie and Oppenheimer in theatres now.
