The internet going crazy for two films about the ultimate kids’ doll and weapons of mass destruction couldn’t have been on many people’s 2023 bingo cards.
But with Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer set to come out on the same day, 21 July, you’d be challenged to name a more iconic duo.
The hype around the two movies could hardly have been more different. Barbie is, well, Barbie; it’s pink, pretty and plastic. Oppenheimer is the atom bomb, fire and brimstone, the destroyer of worlds.
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The internet doesn’t see it that way though. As cinemas gear up to show the movie back-to-back – and film goers decide which order they’re going to watch them in – the meme factory has been working overtime. Here are some of the best.
It recently emerged that the Barbie dream house had mysteriously appeared in Malibu. It comes complete with a pool, huge balconies and that signature pink finish. Oh, and you can stay there on Airbnb soon.
Unfortunately, Oppenheimer fans had an idea for how they could counter the excellent work done by Barbie’s marketing team with a slightly more destructive piece of marketing of their own.
They wouldn’t... Would they?
Someone even went to the effort of making a poster.
As the tension builds ahead of the big release date, people look like they’re picking teams.
Margot Robbie or Cillian Murphy? Greta Gerwig or Christphoer Nolan? Plastic dreams or the everlasting sleep? You decide.
As one Twitter user said: there can be no Switzerland.
If you’ve seen the Barbie trailer, you’ll know that at one point she questions her place on this mortal coil. (If you haven’t seen it… Have you been living under a rock?)
It’s bold writing – but even more timely when you hear the sound of death and destruction coming from the cinema screen next door.
People are already planning their days. Are you Oppenheimer first, then Barbie? (Otherwise known as Oppenbarbie.)
Or are you doing it the other, incorrect way? Because if you’re seeing Barbie in the morning followed by a chaser of atomic doom in the evening (Barbenheimer, apparently), you’re doing it all wrong.
Elsewhere, a pink explosion heralding a totally unprecedented crossover of the two showed that life truly can be stranger than fiction.
There is always, always a ‘Sopranos’ reference.
Which do you fall into?
These two iconic houses in Santa Monica almost nail the difference in tone between the two films without even knowing it.
Yes, of course, there is merch.
Even Tom Cruise couldn't resist it.
And finally, here’s what everyone will look like on 21 July.
We can’t wait.
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