Mark your calendars: ‘Barbenheimer’ is coming

Barbie is everything. He’s just… Robert Oppenheimer.

That’s right. The main character currently competing with Barbie for attention isn’t Ken, her plastic other half. It’s the man who designed the atomic bomb.

Fans have been waiting for the release of two movies this summer — ‘Barbie’ from Warner Bros. and directed by Greta Gerwig, and Universal Pictures’ Oppenheimer and directed by Christopher Nolan — both of which are due out July 21, and poked fun at the stark contrast in the films’ themes, moods, and color schemes.

The result of the release schedule is a hodgepodge that many people may not have seen coming: Barbenheimer. Or Boppenheimer, if you will.

Oppenheimer is Nolan’s prestigious film based on American Prometheus, a biography of Oppenheimer, the scientist who led the Manhattan Project, which produced the first atomic bombs during World War II. The trailers for that movie, which featured intense music and suspenseful scenes starring a pensive-looking Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer, contrast starkly with the pink and glittery trailers for “Barbie,” which features Margot Robbie as the doll who lives in Barbieland before she leaves. on an adventure in the real world.

The two characters could hardly be more different (does this Venn diagram even have a middle?). And yet Robbie and Murphy appear together on T-shirts and sweaters.

Memes, videos and online chatter have flooded social media and some people are making plans to see the two movies on the same day. A debate over the order in which they should be seen – “Barbie” first to start the day off, or “Oppenheimer” first to end on a more cheerful note – has not yet been settled.

The curious crossover also leads to real-life merchandise. A Google search for “Barbenheimer T-shirt” yields tens of thousands of results, and sellers on Etsy have designed their own versions. Some feature Robbie and Murphy, while others combine Barbie’s pink font with a pink drawing of an atom cloud.

One of those T-shirts, and an early entry into the busy field, is a simple combination of the two movie logos on a split screen, spelling out “Barbenheimer” with the movies’ release date.

Hunter Hudson, 23, a filmmaker in San Antonio, said he originally designed and made the shirts for him and his friends to “roll up to the Barbenheimer double film” on July 21. But when he posted pictures of the shirt to his Twitter feed, he said, it went beyond his expectations.

“Usually I get about three or four likes on anything I post,” said Hudson. But after sharing a few mock-ups of the shirt, he woke up one morning to hundreds of messages from people asking him if they could buy it.

Hudson makes the shirts himself, with a friend, and charges $40. So far, he said he’s made about 150 shirts, with a second batch of about 70 on the way. It takes him about 45 minutes to an hour to make one T-shirt, which he does by cutting two shirts in half, pinning them together, then sewing and pressing them.

“I had a few movie theaters contact me privately to make bulk orders for employees,” he said. “It’s been overwhelmingly positive.”

This kind of organic marketing is likely good for both movies, said Robert Mitchell, the director of theatrical insights at Gower Street, a company that does predictive analytics for the film industry.

Not that the studios’ marketing was lacking: there are life-size cardboard Barbie boxes in theaters for people to take pictures of and a selfie generator. There have been collaborations with several brands: The frozen yogurt chain Pinkberry offers a Barbie flavorhas gap a line of Barbie-themed clothingAnd Airbnb offers a lifelike Barbie dream house in Malibu. Warner Bros. declined to comment on the film’s marketing efforts.

What all this hype means for the box office results for both films is unclear, and awareness doesn’t always translate into attendance, Mitchell said. Opening weekend predictions are tricky and a lot can happen before July 21, said David Gross, a film consultant who newsletter on cash register numbers. Some conservative industry estimates, he said, have “Barbie” opening between $55 million and $65 million in the United States and Canada, and “Oppenheimer” between $40 million and $50 million. Both estimates would be strong for a fantasy comedy and a period drama, neither of which are sequels. Superhero, big action and big animated movies tend to open higher, Mr. Gross said.

Still, the hype around the movies could help the numbers. “Every time ‘Barbie’ a trailer“Oppenheimer” would become trending,” Mitchell said.

“They’re so vastly different,” he said, “that they allow for the story to emerge organically: This would be the strangest double bill ever.” That online conversation, he said, “is actually a gift to distributors.”

While social media is full of people showing their tickets to see the double feature, it’s unclear how many there will really be. “But it shouldn’t matter,” Gross said. “Audiences will find them, and both films will do extremely well.”