This Barbie is Oppenheimer

Barbie and Oppenheimer continue to be joined at the collective consciousness’s hip because they are both being released on July 21. People are trying to make this into a thing, but they’re different movies aimed at different audiences. Given its broader, more family-friendly appeal, Barbie has a very good chance of opening bigger than Oppenheimer. 

But Christopher Nolan’s box office is usually about legs, not opening weekend, and Oppenheimer has the advantage of being a mid-summer movie for adults, by adults. It will do just fine, I’m sure, though I remain absolutely fascinated to find out what Nolan’s appeal is after he tried to make everyone go see Tenet in theaters when we were in the thick of the pandemic. 

The new trailer is fantastic, by the way. Oppenheimer looks really good, and it’s great to see Cillian Murphy as one of Nolan’s leading men at last. The film stars all the white men in Hollywood plus Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh, but of everyone shown in the trailer—including an aged Robert Downey, Jr.—I am most excited to see Josh Hartnett. Years ago, I wrote that he has a case of Leading Man Syndrome, which is when handsome dudes aren’t actually built to be leading men, despite their good looks (see also: Ben Affleck). If my theory is correct and Hartnett’s career stalled because he is actually a character actor in leading man disguise, then he should do well in an ensemble like Oppenheimer. As a supporting actor, he can just perform his part and, hopefully, shine. And then maybe have a Hartnessance of his own? It could be a character actor comeback! 

I am also so interested to note this trailer is three minutes long. Trailers are typically capped at two and a half minutes, studios only get a handful of exceptions to this rule every year. Universal is using one of their exceptions on Oppenheimer, which is consistent with how they’ve handled this film so far. There were rumors back when Nolan publicly parted ways with his longtime studio home, Warner Brothers, that he was making a lot of demands, financial and distribution-wise, and it would seem Universal is honoring all of his requests. 

Rumor was, Nolan wanted a six-week exclusivity window for his film, and sure enough, Universal is not releasing any other films for three weeks on either side of Oppenheimer. Now they’ve given Oppenheimer a supersized trailer, something usually reserved for event films. Christopher Nolan is one of the few filmmakers who is an event unto himself, true, but it really looks like Universal is pulling out all the stops to make Nolan happy and show him how important he and his film, and by extension theatrical distribution, is to them. As they should—if this works out, they could be Nolan’s new home studio. That was very profitable for Warners until Jason Kilar decided talent relationships didn’t matter. It could be just as lucrative for Universal going forward. 

To put it in Barbie terms: Christopher Nolan is everything. Universal is just Ken.