Barbenheimer began as a joke. The hot-pink cheeriness of Barbie and the grim atomic drama of Oppenheimer are polar opposites, so wouldn’t it be hilarious if audiences went to see them as a double bill? Well, both movies have defied an otherwise gloomy summer at the box office to become smash hits, with many audience members taking the plunge and seeing the pair in close succession.
So, is Barbenheimer really a model that other studios should follow? Perhaps so, as in Japan in 2001, savvy studios noticed that Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack and Hamtaro: Adventures in Ham-Ham Land were releasing on the same day and decided that these two very different movies should be a double feature.
Enter “Godziham”, with theaters offering a special ticket to enjoy both movies in one sitting. There was even official merchandise combining everyone’s favorite city-smashing lizard and the adorable Hamtaro. The event was so beloved that twenty years later they brought it back.
Hollywood also has some experience with this. In 1968 some genius decided that the goofy comedy The Odd Couple and the intensely terrifying Satanic horror Rosemary’s Baby should be combined, billing it as “The greatest double-feature of all time!” Back in Japan, Studio Ghibli also released the all-time heartwarmer My Neighbor Totoro alongside the all-time heartwrencher Grave of the Fireflies.
So we’re absolutely up for more of these chalk and cheese double features. We suspect Christopher Nolan would have refused to allow any official merchandising and promotional crossovers between Oppenheimer and Barbie, but this odd concept has uplifted both movies. Let’s hope we see more in the same vein.