21 July 2023 will be written down in history for the impact it is about to have on the entertainment industry. Fans are absolutely thrilled about Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer being released on the same date. Both films are huge and of course, completely opposite of each other. Regardless, ‘Barbenheimer’ has everyone looking forward to it.
While many fans are making elaborate plans to watch both films on the same day, excited as excited gets, there is one person who is apparently not happy with the coinciding release dates. According to sources, Christopher Nolan is upset that Warner Bros. decided to release Barbie and Oppenheimer on the same date.
Christopher Nolan is Unhappy with Warner Bros.
Christopher Nolan has been in a bit of a bad place with Warner Bros. for some time now. First of all, his 2020 film, Tenet, was exclusively released in theatres during the height of the pandemic, resulting in a box office failure. Next, Warner Bros.’ parent company WarnerMedia revealed its decision of releasing its 2021 slate only on HBO Max, Nolan couldn’t keep silent. He blasted the movie in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter stating,
“Some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service…Their decision makes no economic sense, and even the most casual Wall Street investor can see the difference between disruption and dysfunction.”
And now, Nolan is apparently upset with the studios again and it’s because of the coinciding release dates of Barbenheimer. According to Insider’s sources, Nolan is unhappy with WB’s decision of releasing Greta Gerwig’s Barbie in mid-July. Mid-July has essentially been known as “Nolan’s Weekend” for a while now as the director prefers this period for the release of his films.
The sources also added that the movie theatre community tried to get WB to budge and shift Barbie’s release date. However, the sources add, the studios were not ready to alter their decision.
As a taunting cherry on top, early box office predictions believe that Barbie will open to $80 million whereas Oppenheimer will only open to half of that.
Oppenheimer’s Release Date Upsets Tom Cruise?
Amidst the Barbenheimer craze, Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One might be suffering. The first part of Mission: Impossible 7 is releasing just a few days before the two mega films. And while Cruise is reportedly confident his film will rule the box office for those days, he is worried about things changing from July 21.
Since Oppenheimer has completely been shot in IMAX format, Nolan has made a deal to lock every IMAX screen in North America for only his movie. This deal will last for the first three weeks since the film’s release.
According to reports by Puck, Cruise is not happy with this and he is going around asking rival studios to get his film in the Premium Large Format (PLF) available for a longer time as he is upset with Oppenheimer hogging the IMAX screens. However, an IMAX representative told IndieWire that they are absolutely committed to Nolan’s 3-week plan.
Despite his reported disappointment, Cruise is all ready to watch Oppenheimer first before moving on to Barbie.
Barbie and Oppenheimer release in theatres on July 21, 2023.
Source: Insider
