Barbie vs Oppenheimer latest: Greta Gerwig explains Barbie’s ending after record-breaking box office debut

Gerwig broke the domestic box office record for female director with ‘Barbie’ debut

Barbie cast turn London Eye pink to celebrate film premiere

Greta Gerwig has broken the domestic box office record for a female director, with Barbie debuting at $155m in North America and $337m globally.

The film surpassed the $103.3m domestic opening of Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman and the $153m weekend opening of 2019’s Captain Marvel, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Cinemas around the world were busier than ever over the weekend, thanks to the simultaneous release of Barbie and Oppenheimer, with excitement for Gerwig and Christopher Nolan’s respective blockbusters going into overdrive.

While Oppenheimer’s critical ratings have blown past Barbie with a near-perfect Rotten Tomato score, the latter, which stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has surpassed the Cillian Murphy-starring biopic’s box office takings.

In a new interview with The Independent, Nolan described Oppenheimer as “the biggest film I’ve made”. Murphy admitted to struggling to watch the film due to seeing his face projected on the screen, but acknowledged that the film is “designed” to be “watched with an audience”.

Meanwhile, Gerwig has spoken about her film’s “mic drop” ending, after breaking the record for the biggest box office debut by a female director.

Key points

• ‘Life in plastic, it’s fantastic!’: Barbie gets five stars from The Independent
• Read The Independent’s four-star review of Oppenheimer
• Mission: Impossible struggles at box office against record-breaking might of Barbenheimer
• Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy on Oppenheimer: ‘Taking that risk on behalf of us all – there’s nothing bigger than that’
• Oppenheimer’s women: the true story of the brilliant, complicated female figures behind the famed physicist

[25 July 2023 02:30 · Inga Parkel]

Greta Gerwig explains Barbie’s ‘mic-drop’ ending

Greta Gerwig has explained Barbie’s “mic drop” ending, revealing that its one-liner took inspiration from her personal experience as a teenage girl.

The director’s much-hyped movie, which has already broken box office records during its opening weekend, stars Margot Robbie as the iconic Mattel doll. In the film Robbie’s Barbie ventures out of Barbieland into the real world to repair a rift between the two.

*Barbie spoilers below – you have been warned*

Read more:

Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie (Getty Images)

Greta Gerwig explains Barbie’s ‘mic-drop’ ending: ‘I knew I wanted to end on a joke’

Director’s much-hyped movie is out in cinemas now

[25 July 2023 02:00 · Inga Parkel]

Oppenheimer review: Clever, imaginative and Christopher Nolan at his best

“Cillian Murphy allows the light to dim from his eyes in every subsequent scene, but it is Robert Downey Jr who is titanic here,” writes The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey.

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BARBENHEIMER (AP)

Cillian Murphy allows the light to dim from his eyes in every subsequent scene, but it is Robert Downey Jr who is titanic here

[25 July 2023 01:30 · Inga Parkel]

What order should you watch Barbie and Oppenheimer in?

With the two films out in the same week, many people have committed to seeing them one after the other, as part of a self-curated double bill.

The radically different tones of the two films has, however, provoked some debate regarding the optimal order in which to view the films.

Louis Chilton writes.

Barbie and Oppenheimer (AP)

Many people are attempting to take on the ‘Barbenheimer’ double bill, with both films out now

[25 July 2023 01:00 · Inga Parkel]

Mattel accused of ‘stealth marketing’ after giving away free Barbie dolls in schools

Mattel has sparked criticism for “stealth marketing” to children after a new programme gave away free Barbie dolls in schools, a move that health experts are claiming reinforces damaging gender stereotypes.

The toy manufacturer launched the “Barbie School of Friendship” programme this year, in which free Barbie dolls were given to an estimated 150,000 students in 700 schools across the UK to teach social skills.

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(AFP via Getty Images)

Health experts have claimed Mattel-sponsored school programme ‘reinforces damaging gender stereotypes’

[25 July 2023 00:30 · Inga Parkel]

The story behind Greta Gerwig’s doomed How I Met Your Mother spin-off

Before Greta Gerwig rose to greater acclaim as a director, she acted in projects including Noah Baumbach’s comedy-drama Greenberg in 2010, and in the title role of his 2013 film Frances Ha, which she co-wrote.

Off the back of these critical hits, Gerwig was cast in a spinoff of the hit comedy series How I Met Your Mother, which intended to follow a woman named Sophie (Gerwig) as she recounts the story of how she met her son’s dad.

Sadly, the project was doomed to fail, with Gerwig’s pilot sadly never manifesting into a full series order.

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(YouTube / 20th Television)

Gerwig takes full responsibility for the project’s failure

[25 July 2023 00:00 · Inga Parkel]

Christopher Nolan says Oppenheimer is ‘the biggest film I’ve ever made’

The Independent sat down with both Nolan and Cillian Murphy to discuss Oppenheimer.

During the chat, Nolan discussed his new film as well as his directing future while Murphy admitted: “I love watching Christopher Nolan’s films when I’m not in them.

Read the full interview here.

Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy: ‘Scale in cinema is a peculiar thing’ (AP/iStock)

The blockbuster director and ‘Peaky Blinders’ star talk to Jacob Stolworthy about bringing to life the man who masterminded the creation of the atomic bomb

[24 July 2023 23:30 · Inga Parkel]

Woman goes viral with custom-made ‘Barbenheimer’ outfit for double-feature: ‘Flawless’

A woman has stunned movie-goers after she showed off her custom-made outfit for back-to-back screenings of Barbie and Oppenheimer.

This weekend, the simultaneous release of Barbie and Oppenheimer on 21 July made around $235.5m at the domestic box office. Ahead of opening weekend, many fans affectionately nicknamed the double-billing “Barbenheimer” and shared their plans to see one movie right after the other.

Such was the case for one fan, who went viral on Twitter after she shared her two-in-one look, fitting for both the pink-filled Greta Gerwig movie and the Christopher Nolan biopic. The Twitter user – who goes by Danielle – posted a video of herself standing in front of an Oppenheimer movie poster, dressed in a black sleeveless jumpsuit with a black studded belt.

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(Twitter / @hottoiletwater)

Woman goes viral with custom-made ‘Barbenheimer’ outfit for double-feature: ‘Flawless’

The ‘Barbenheimer’ craze had fans seeing both ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ during opening weekend

[24 July 2023 23:00 · Inga Parkel]

Margot Robbie’s friends outraged she didn’t kiss Ryan Gosling in Barbie: ‘What’s wrong with you?’

Margot Robbie has admitted that her friends were very disappointed by her lack of kissing with Ryan Gosling in the Barbie movie.

The pair play Barbie and Ken in Greta Gerwig’s comedy smash, which in its first weekend has broken the domestic box office record for a female director.

While the two dolls are boyfriend and girlfriend in the film, they never kiss, due to the innocent nature of their relationship. In the trailer, Ken asks Barbie if he can stay over at her place. When she asks him: “To do what?”, he replies: “I’m actually not sure.”

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Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie (REUTERS)

Margot Robbie’s friends outraged she didn’t kiss Ryan Gosling in Barbie: ‘What’s wrong with you?’

Acting pair play Barbie and Ken in Greta Gerwig’s new comedy

[24 July 2023 22:30 · Inga Parkel]

Are Christopher Nolan’s films right-wing?

“Nobody knows what you believe. Do you?” So asks scientist Edward Teller (Benny Safdie), in a scene from Christopher Nolan’s nuclear epic Oppenheimer. The question is posed to J Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the so-called “father of the atomic bomb”, whose disavowed communist past clung to his reputation like stepped-on gum. But the question might just as well have been addressed to Nolan himself.

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Oppenheimer (© Universal Pictures. All Rights Reserved.)

Are Christopher Nolan’s films right-wing? Oppenheimer finally suggests otherwise

The 52-year-old filmmaker’s work has long prompted speculation over his political views, from the supposedly pro-conservative ‘Dark Knight’ to the anti-war messaging of ‘Tenet’. Does his nuclear biopic ‘Oppenheimer’ hold any answers, asks Louis Chilton

[24 July 2023 22:00 · Inga Parkel]

(Atlantic Records)

Barbie: The Album review – Billie Eilish leads a soundtrack that’s as erratic as the movie that inspired it

Unusually, the bigger names here – including Dua Lipa and Sam Smith – are the most underwhelming