Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Lifestyle
Elizabeth Gregory

Barbenheimer: Barbie meets Oppenheimer - the release of the year’s two biggest films is a meme dream

Barbie Christopher Nolan Oppenheimer Internet

It should have been an utter disaster. Two of the year’s biggest films, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, are set to be released on the same day.

Although not exactly gunning for the same audience – one being a bright pink fizzy meditation on life and womanhood in Barbieland, and the other, a sombre tale of the complicated and brilliant characters behind the creation of the atomic bomb – cinefiles will be lining up to see both.

There must have been a moment when Oppenheimer’s team were scratching their heads. It’s difficult to compete with the happy buzz whipped up by the idea of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling running around a life-size Barbieland with half of the biggest names in Hollywood, to a backing track that includes numbers from Ice Spice and Dua Lipa. Particularly when the film you’re trying to sell is about the first nuclear bomb.

But the internet has found the juxtaposition between the two films to be a perfect balance. Barbie is ying, Oppenheimer is yang. Barbie is you on payday, Oppenheimer is you one week later. Barbie is how you feel in the morning before work, Oppenheimer is how you feel after a day at work. And so on.

The colours – Barbie’s bright pink and Oppenheimer’s many greys – make the comparisons all the more stark, and hilarious.

A series of brilliant memes have poured online. The terms “Barbenheimer” and “Boppenheimer” have been adopted to describe the important debates around the films – such as, which should be seen first on July 21? T-shirts have even been designed, with fans working on finding the perfect shades of grey and pink.

Suddenly, the decision to release both films on the same day seems utterly inspired.

Here’s our pick of some of the internet’s best memes.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Cher Reveals the "Fiasco" That Ensued When She Performed for Princess Margaret in 1965: "I Was Mortified"
"It was like a bad dream that we couldn’t get out of; we just had to stand there and wait for it to be over."
Marie Claire
Marie Claire
From frozen to feast, how to safely defrost your Thanksgiving turkey
Experts have recommended three different methods to defrost your turkey for Thanksgiving dinner
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
“One of the most important guitars in rock and roll history”: George Harrison’s Futurama smashes auction estimate and sets a new record with staggering $1.27 million sale
The oddball electric – which was used during the Beatles’ early years, and saw action in over 300 historic shows – becomes the most expensive electric guitar formerly owned by a Beatle to sell at auction
Guitar World
Guitar World
Keke Palmer: I'm living life on my own terms
Keke Palmer has revealed that she feels proud to be living life "on [her] own terms".
BANG Premier
BANG Premier
Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun buys $6 million banana—and plans to eat it unless Elon Musk wants to send it to space
Sun outbid six others for the iconic work.
Fortune
Fortune
Paul Simon names the fan-favorite song he’ll never perform again
The folk rock icon said his hearing loss has limited the songs he can perform live
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play