Tickets are on sale for both movies in Kenya.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past month, then you know the Barbenheimer craze has begun.
What is Barbenheimer?
Barbenheimer is an Internet phenomenon and a portmanteau of the names of two highly anticipated films both set for release on Friday, July 21 – Barbie and Oppenheimer.
What fueled the memes and jokes on social media was the fact that both films were so diametrically opposed in genre that it was almost laughable that they had the same release date.
Soon, TikTok was flooded with videos of how to dress to watch both movies while Twitter made jokes and memes of the personalities of the people who would opt for Oppenheimer, those who were more likely to watch Barbie and those who would watch both.
Box office hit in the making?
What may have started as a joke on the internet, is however, set to propel the box office to its best weekend in years according to CNN. Elsewhere, BoxOffice Pro, a publication that tracks box office performance, said this week it is projecting “a $200+ million weekend at the cinema. That would result in one of the biggest theatrical weekends since the pandemic upended the industry and a big win for Hollywood while writers and actors are on strike.”
Speaking to CNN, Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice Pro said, “This is truly one of the wildest and most unpredictable situations I’ve ever observed at the box office. Oppenheimer’ and ‘Barbie’ were both destined for probable success on their own terms, but capturing the social media zeitgeist has escalated the phenomenon into what feels like will be one of the biggest moviegoing weekends since 2019. Even those who don’t regularly patron cinemas are aware of ‘Barbenheimer.’ You can’t easily buy that kind of promotion, if at all.”
What’s Oppenheimer about?
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Directed by award-winning director Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer is set during World War II and begins when Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves Jr. appoints young physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer and a team of scientists spend years developing and designing the atomic bomb. Their work comes to fruition on July 16, 1945, as they witness the world’s first nuclear explosion, forever changing the course of history.
Oppenheimer is based on the real-life story of physicist Robert J. Oppenheimer and the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
What’s Barbie about?
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Directed by award-winning director Greta Gerwig, Barbie follows Barbie (played by Margot Robbie) as she leaves the utopia of Barbie Land with Ken (played by Ryan Gosling) to enter the real world, where she discovers, among other things, patriarchy.
Barbie is based on the Mattel doll of the same name.
Where can I watch both films in Nairobi?
Theatres across Nairobi are showing both movies over the weekend. Two watch both on the same day, make sure you check out Century Cinemax’s website for timings and venues.
