Manav Singh, Pune
21st July saw the release of two big Hollywood films of the year, Oppenheimer and Barbie. On the Internet, the term “Barbieheimer” has gained a household appeal among movie lovers.
Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan centers around the ‘father of atomic bomb’ J Robert Oppenheimer, and his life before and after the Trinity test. The movie features Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, and Robert Downey Jr. The film is Nolan’s 12th directorial after Tenet. On the other hand, Barbie directed by Greta Gerwig, offers an interesting plot line centering on the adventures of the protagonist in both worlds of Barbieland and today’s modern society. The film includes the likes of Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, and Will Farrell. Barbie is Gerwig’s 4th after Little Women.
Both films gained positive reviews from critics and audiences. On Rotten Tomatoes, Oppenheimer currently holds a rating of 94 percent while Barbie has a rating of 90 percent. On IMDb, Oppenheimer is currently rated 8.9 while Barbie is at the rating of 7.6.
The weekend is witnessing the flow of people not only globally but also in India. The box office collection of both films is highly profitable. According to the Deadline’s report, Barbie is projected to collect over $300 million worldwide by Sunday out of which $150 million is expected to come from the North American theatres. Christopher Nolan’s directorial on the other hand is also projected to collect over $165.9 million with $88.9 million coming from its overseas market.
India, in particular, is also witnessing good occupancy of its theatres around, mainly the metropolitan multiplex chains. But here Nolan’s Oppenheimer has turned out to be the Indian audience’s first choice of the weekend where in two days the film has collected a good 31.50 crores while Barbie stands at 11 crores. In India, the screen count of both Oppenheimer and Barbie stands at 1900 and 850 respectively.