Neither theaters nor audiences were ready for Barbenheimer
Tiana Lowe Doescher
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When Christopher Nolan decided to dump Warner Bros. over its insistence on releasing new films on the small screen during the pandemic, the studio decided to take its revenge, scheduling the release of the first-ever live-action Barbie the same day as Nolan’s biopic Oppenheimer. Depending on your perspective, the pettiness of Warner Bros. either backfired or succeeded spectacularly.
While Barbie was projected to net $100 million and Oppenheimer $50 million during their opening weekends, the films smashed expectations, raking in $162 million and $82 million, respectively. Nearly $5 million of Oppenheimer’s box office haul came from viewers who opted for the movie specifically because Barbie showings were already sold out. One multinational theater chain said a fifth of audiences purchased tickets for both films. All in all, “Barbenheimer” was the largest aggregate domestic weekend ever in theatrical releases.
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But although the numbers and enthusiasm marked a post-COVID renaissance for an industry all but decimated by the pandemic, neither audiences nor theaters seemed remotely prepared for the pandemonium.
From reckless driving to unruly behavior on planes, all sorts of bad behavior have been on the rise since the lockdowns, and movie theaters have not been spared. Earlier this month, a patron broke a Florida man’s nose when he tried to sit in his assigned seat, and last month, a New Mexico man shot and killed another patron over a seating dispute. But even more banal behavior takes a toll.
Over the weekend, my husband and I were evacuated from our 4 p.m. showing of Oppenheimer five minutes into the film when a drunk man (with a 40 smuggled into the theater, no less) passed out and was unresponsive. When I saw Barbie on Monday, patrons threw their trash, including open containers, onto piles exploding from the bins. I walked out of the theater with a leg coated in some child’s marinara sauce that had been similarly thrown toward the mess, with me caught in the fire.
And the theaters are no less fit to deal with the fracas. Unprompted, three movie theater employees at two different theater chains lamented they were not prepared to deal with the chaos. One AMC location was out of stock not just of normal, ancillary fare such as hot dogs and nachos by Monday but also out of standard, salty popcorn by Tuesday. By the end of Barbenheimer weekend, the floor was sticky, strewn with spilled soda, trash, girls in wrinkled fuchsia and boys in all-black, like the end of a prom after-party when the lights turn on, and everyone is just a little too sloshed and sloppy for comfort.
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The good news is that the cash infusion to movie theaters will give them the resources to restock and deep clean, and perhaps the dual strikes of Hollywood’s writers and actors will provide a buffer of time, as Barbenheimer might have been the last blockbuster weekend for the big screen for some time.
But hopefully, not too long a buffer of time, lest the theaters be forced to shut down for good.