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
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Your support makes all the difference.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.
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Margot Robbie cast Rob Brydon ‘as a priority’ in Barbie
Mission: Impossible struggles at box office against record-breaking might of Barbenheimer
Barbie review: A near-miraculous achievement from Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie
Greta Gerwig on track to break record for the biggest domestic opening for a female director
Barbie is reportedly on track to earn over $150m dollars in its opening weekend. If it achieves this feat, Gerwig will break the record for the biggest domestic opening for a female director in Hollywood history.
Emily Blunt says she was distracted by Cillian Murphy’s ‘ocean eyes’
Matt Damon and Emily Blunt have admitted to finding co-star Cillian Murphy’s blue eyes to be a “real problem” on the set of Oppenheimer.
“It’s a real problem when you’re doing scene work with Cillian,” Damon said. “Sometimes you find yourself just swimming in his eyes.”
Blunt compared Murphy’s eyes to Billie Eilish’s 2016 hit “Ocean Eyes”. “We just hum it all day,” she said.
Read more:
Emily Blunt says Cillian Murphy’s ‘ocean eyes’ were distracting on Oppenheimer set
‘Sometimes you find yourself just swimming in his eyes,’ Matt Damon said of Irish actor
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‘Are You there God It’s Me Margaret’ director calls ‘Barbie’ ‘truly a thing of genius'
Barbenheimer fans warn others not to watch Barbie after Oppenheimer
There has been much discussion about the proper order to watch the Barbenheimer double feature. The actors themselves have even weighed in on the discourse.
But take it from fans who appear to have made the mistake of watching Oppenheimer before Barbie. The former is heavy, and while some have argued that that’s exactly why you would want to end on the joyful Barbie – as a palette cleanser – “I can’t imagine wanting to do anything after Oppenheimer,” one viewer tweeted.
“Oppenheimer completely emotionally devastated me and then I watched the movie about a Toy,” they added.
Barbie doubles Oppenheimer’s earnings in box office previews
Warner Bros and Universal Pictures have announced the box office preview earnings for Barbie and Oppenheimer, respectively, and there’s a clear winner.
Barbie earned $22.3m (£17.3m) in the US across 3,900 cinemas while Universal says Oppenheimer collected $10.5m (£8.2m); though, it was previewed in fewer theatres than Barbie (3,150).
Read more:
Barbie doubles Oppenheimer’s earnings in box office previews
‘Barbie’ has collected the best preview earnings of any film this year
Margot Robbie says she faked her own death because she hated her babysitter
Margot Robbie has admitted that she once faked her own death to play a trick on a babysitter.
The Australian actor stars as Barbie in Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated film about the popular Mattel doll line. One trailer for the film sees Barbie ask her other doll friends about death.
Appearing on Zoe Ball’s BBC Radio 2 show on Thursday (20 July), Robbie, 33, recalled how she had once pretended to be dead as part of an elaborate prank she played on her adult babysitter.
Read more:
‘Barbie’ star told Zoe Ball about the incident in a new interview
Oppenheimer star Matt Damon makes surprising revelation about kissing Scarlett Johansson
During the promotional trail for Oppenheimer, Damon (who plays Lt Leslie Groves Jr in the movie) played a game for LadBible, where he and co-star Emily Blunt had to say whether they agreed or disagreed with a statement.
The topic of kissing co-stars came up when the actors were posed with the statement, “You should tell someone if they have bad breath.”
Damon then went on to tell the story about kissing Johansson while shooting the 2011 drama We Bought a Zoo, joking that it was “hell” having to kiss her.
“Can you image how horrible that was for me?” he said.
“We went to lunch and she and I both thought it was over. She ate an onion sandwich for lunch and she came in and Cameron Crowe had set the camera up and it was a tight shot of the kiss, and she goes, ‘Oh shit, I literally just had an onion sandwich!’”
Read more:
Matt Damon says kissing co-star Scarlett Johansson was ‘hell’
‘Can you image how horrible that was for me,’ Damon says
Margot Robbie’s stylist reveals six barely-seen outfits for Barbie press tour
Margot Robbie gave show-stopping performances on every hot pink carpet of the Barbie press tour, but a few of her planned Mattel-inspired outfits weren’t officially unveiled due to the SAG-AFTRA strikes cutting the world-wide event schedule short.
To give the missed looks the recognition they deserve, Robbie’s stylist Andrew Mukamal debuted six never seen photos in an 18 July Instagram post.
Read more:
Robbie wore vintage Versace, Chanel, Vivienne Westwood, and Valentino
Is Barbenheimer actually good?
Ahead of Barbie and Oppenheimer’s respective releases in cinemas on Friday (21 July), both films have received rapturous praise from critics.
But now that they have officially opened to a majority of general audiences, you may be wondering if the films are living up to the initial hype or if it has all just been one big marketing campaign.
And wouldn’t that be an absolute shame?
Luckily, we’ve been saved from living that reality. Barbie has debuted with an audience score of 90 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, while Oppenheimer currently sits at an astounding 94 per cent audience score.
“I just watched the Barbie movie and HOLY S***,” one fan tweeted. “That was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen like what the hell.”
“#Oppenheimer is arguably Nolan’s magnum-opus, a terrifying look at one of the most daunting aspects of our history. It’s suspenseful, anxiety-inducing and told in a way that’s absolutely breathtaking. Murphy is flawless and RDJ stuns along with a masterful score. I’m astounded!”
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