Here’s who’s tracking to win the ‘Barbie’ v ‘Oppenheimer’ box office battle
The box office battle between Barbie and Oppenheimer is heating up ahead of the films’ releases – here’s who’s on track to come out on top.
The two films are both set to be released on the same day next month (July 21) and have been locked into a humorous and meme-filled rivalry.
Greta Gerwig’s Barbie stars Robbie in the titular role, with Ryan Gosling as Ken, while Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer sees Cillian Murphy play scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer who is credited as the “father of the atomic bomb” for his role in the Manhattan Project.
Ahead of the films’ releases, box office projections have Barbie looking set to pick up more than double the taking of Nolan’s film.
New projections from The Hollywood Reporter hint that Barbie could open with between a $70-80million opening weekend, while Oppenheimer is expecting a $40million opening.
In the run-up to the release of his new film, Nolan has said there’s an “interesting relationship” between the endings of Oppenheimer and his 2011 film Inception.
Speaking in an interview with Wired, Nolan explained that there’s some similarities between Oppenheimer’s ending and the ambiguous final scene in Inception, where it was left unclear whether Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) was still in a dream.
Asked whether he believed his films have an optimistic or “anti-nihilistic” outlook, Nolan said: “I mean, the end of Inception, it’s exactly that. There is a nihilistic view of that ending, right? But also, he’s moved on and is with his kids. The ambiguity is not an emotional ambiguity. It’s an intellectual one for the audience.”
In the Barbie world, meanwhile, Margot Robbie revealed the one request she made to director Greta Gerwig before filming.
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Will Richards
NME
