Who watched Barbenheimer? – The Washington Post

Ismail, 34, and her husband, Seth, traveled from their home in Towson, Md., all the way to Beaverton, Ore., to meet her husband’s family for a five-hour cinematic journey. They caught the noon “Oppenheimer” showing, took a few hours to walk around and grab a meal, then settled back into the same Cinemark theater for a 7:35 p.m. screening of “Barbie.” And they were far from the only group to do so this past weekend.

What began as a joke about counterprogramming is now very, very real: Barbenheimer took over the weekend box office with a combined $244.4 million domestic haul, breaking all kinds of records in the process.

Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” brought in $162 million, which is the largest domestic opening to date this year as well as the largest domestic opening for a solo female director ever. Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” meanwhile, raked in $82.4 million, making this the first weekend in Hollywood history for two films to open over $100 million and $50 million at the same time.

“Barbie” mania drove much of that success: Fans across the country showed up to screenings in full costume, turning ordinary cineplexes into seas of pink, pink and more pink.

Josh Crump attended “Barbie” with his 4-year-old daughter, Ellie, at the Cinemark Somerdale 16 in Somerdale, N.J. “There were parts in there that were for parents and for kids,” Crump, who is a high school culinary teacher, told The Washington Post. He and Ellie play with Barbies daily.

“She loved it. She’s ready to go see it again. …I think that [the ‘Barbie’ movie] had a great message in it. We will probably watch it a couple of times as she grows up, too.”

Mother and daughter Jane Williams, 53, and Angel Williams, 20, of the Port Richmond neighborhood of Philadelphia, coordinated their outfits for their Saturday screening at Landmark’s Ritz Five. “We had to get matching Barbie outfits, because she has about 50 Barbie dolls,” Jane told The Post.

But plenty of those dressed for the Dreamhouse found their way to “Oppenheimer” showings, too. According to the National Association of Theatre Owners, more than 200,000 U.S. moviegoers bought tickets to see “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” on the same day this weekend.

Even Quentin Tarantino was among them. Variety reports that the director first saw “Oppenheimer” at the Westwood Village theater in Los Angeles, then walked across the street to the Regency Bruin to buy tickets to “Barbie.” (The theater choice provided some subtle promotion for Tarantino’s own work: “Barbie” star Margot Robbie shot a memorable scene in the Bruin for “Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood.”)

There is no hard data available on the order in which Barbenheimer fans saw the films, but Tarantino seems to have followed the consensus plan: an “Oppenheimer” shot with a “Barbie” chaser.

At the London premiere of “Barbie,” star Issa Rae told the Associated Press this is the viewing order that makes the most sense. “If you see ‘Oppenheimer’ last then you might be a bit of a psychopath,” she joked.

But a mother-daughter pair who braved Barbenheimer in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Thursday evening recommended seeing the films the other way around: “Barbie” first, then “Oppenheimer.” Jane Kane, 57, and Mary Carolyn Kane, 21, caught a 5:30 p.m. “Barbie” showing followed by “Oppenheimer” at 8:45 p.m. and told The Post that they could not have imagined doing it otherwise.

“‘Oppenheimer’ is so long and dense and mentally taxing to watch that after it, you don’t want to watch a ‘palate cleanser.’ You want to leave the movie theater and process for a little while,” the younger Kane said. Her mother concurred: “I don’t think I would have laughed as robustly during the ‘Barbie’ movie if I had seen ‘Oppenheimer’ first.”

Julia Brukx, a 21-year-old from Northern Virginia, had so much excitement for the double feature that she took to her sewing machine. She stitched part of the phrase J. Robert Oppenheimer has said ran through his mind during the atomic bomb testing — “DESTROYER OF WORLDS” — in Barbie-pink fabric onto a T-shirt for the occasion.

Brukx saw “Oppenheimer” first, then “Barbie,” with a dinner break in between to decompress and discuss the first film. But “Barbie” was surprisingly emotional for Brukx, too: “It left me a sobbing mess walking out of the theater,” she said. (Those poignant mother-daughter scenes will get you.)

Brukx was one of many moviegoers who dressed up for this five-hour expenditure of emotional energy: Fans across the country have posted photos of their Barbenheimer outfits on social media, including one Twitter user who went viral after creating a custom two-in-one look to seamlessly transition from Los Alamos, N.M., to Barbieland. (The user, who goes by Danielle on social media, tweeted that her look, which flipped from black to pink, was “heavily inspired” by “RuPaul’s Drag Race” star Violet Chachki, who debuted a similar outfit on the show. “I wanted to create a fun campy two in one look,” she wrote.)

Several moviegoers told The Post that Barbenheimer simply provided an opportunity to spend a whole day with family and friends, and for that, it was worth it. Ismail, who planned the double screening for her husband’s birthday, said her whole group enjoyed both films and stayed engaged throughout the marathon day. But she did personally cop to closing her eyes for 10 minutes during “Oppenheimer.”

“When I woke up, I didn’t feel like I missed much,” she said.