There's an old story marketeers like to share. A Coca-Cola vending machine sits alone in a recreation room in a college, it’s doing decent business.
Then one day, Coke’s arch nemesis is added to the room. A Pepsi machine. The presumption is that Pepsi’s presence will reduce the Coke machine’s revenue. But what actually happens is that both machines wind up doing well, and the Coke machine’s income actually goes up, despite the competition.
The lesson derived from the story is that when the consumer sees one option, a single Coke machine, the question they ask themselves is "do I want a drink?". When presented with two options, the question becomes "which drink do I want, a Coke or a Pepsi?".
A special #barbieheimer poster created by @rahalarts pic.twitter.com/6sEOFB4BTU
— Film Daze (@filmdaze) July 16, 2023
In 2022 it was announced that the very serious, three-hour historical film, directed by Christopher Nolan, about the man who oversaw the first nuclear bomb was going to be released the same day internationally as a Greta Gerwig’s bright pink, family friendly comedy based on the cultural phenomena that is the Barbie doll. The memes immediately appeared online about this unlikely pairing. Everyone chuckling at this strange double bill.
While some onlookers might see this and question "who are these people who are equally interested in both films?" The answer to that is simple, people who love cinema, they are just as excited about the new Greta Gerwig film as they are about the new Christopher Nolan film and as the release date came closer, "Barbenheimer", grew legs.
It has become a cultural moment. Some people playfully pitched them against each other, The Light House Cinema in Dublin released "Team Gerwig" and "Team Nolan" badges. There are t-shirts, memes and SO MUCH fan art. Literally any photo of a pink/playful item beside a dark/serious item became viral when labelled as the upcoming releases.
And it worked, both films had incredible opening weekends. If you must name a winner, it’s Barbie. Unsurprisingly, the family friendly film with a massive brand and incredible marketing campaign made more money. But also, and this is rarely mentioned when people compare box offices, Oppenheimer has a considerably longer running time which simply means less screenings.
To say that Barbie is the winner does not mean Oppenheimer is the loser, far from it. As of Monday morning, Oppenheimer had taken $174 million internationally against Barbie’s $337 million. Both films are in the top 20 international earners of 2023 after one weekend.
And when you cast analysis over the US domestic box office the stats are even more impressive. This is first time in US box office history that two films opened with over €80 million each. This never happens. One film is always stealing ticket sales from the other. Needless to say, they’re both winners.
So, what has Barbenheimer proved?
Did they actually benefit from each other? Would Barbie had done just as well if Oppenheimer wasn’t playing next door? Would Oppenheimer be as appealing if one didn’t just walk through the lobby covered in pink to get to it?
We can't be sure but it’s worth going back to the Coke/Pepsi example. The consumer’s question wasn’t "do I want to go to the cinema this weekend?". It became "which film am I going to see this weekend" and in many cases "which film do I watch first?". It looks like Barbenheimer made a lot of people thirsty for cinema.
Barbie and Oppenheimer are in cinemas nationwide now.
