The war between Barbie and Oppenheimer became more of a celebration of cinema. Many flocked to the cinemas, making Barbie legendary at the box office and giving Oppenheimer the boost it needed to make it one of Christopher Nolan’s most successful films to date.
We all loved both movies, but who loves movies most of all? Martin Scorsese. So it shouldn’t surprise you that the director of Killers of the Flower Moon also really loved the Barbenheimer craze.
“I do think that the combination of Oppenheimer and Barbie was something special. It seemed to be, I hate that word, but the perfect storm,” Scorsese said in an interview with The Hindustan Times. “It came about at the right time. And the most important thing is that people went to watch these in a theater. And I think that’s wonderful.”
Scorsese went on to talk about why the conversation surrounding Barbenheimer was so fascinating and how it fits with the entertainment world. “The way it fit perfectly—a film with such entertainment value, purely with the bright colors–and a film with such severity and strength, and pretty much about the danger of the end to our civilization–you couldn’t have more opposite films to work together,” he said. “It does offer some hope for a different cinema to emerge, different from what’s been happening in the last 20 years, aside from the great work being done in independent cinema.”
The thing is—he’s beyond right. It is an event that people are going to want to try and replicate in hopes of creating a similar craze.
The world loved Barbenheimer
While I was on board prior to the release of Barbie and Oppenheimer (not to be that person), I knew that this was going to be something special. Many of us came to the theater in “Barbenheimer” shirts and dressed up because we knew this event was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime thing. What made it better was that both movies were fantastic. Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan delivered, making the fanfare that much better and deserved.
So creatives like Scorsese also joining in on the fun does show just how deep the excitement went. It also highlights the lack of moments like this in our current pop culture zeitgeist. We don’t often have events like Barbenheimer to get us excited about movies. So when we do have something that gets everyone out and to the theaters, it’s worth talking about.
I’m happy that Scorsese is on our side in the great Barbenheimer debate. I hope he really loved “I’m Just Ken.”
(featured image: Warner Bros./Universal Pictures via Deadline)
