Barbie vs Oppenheimer latest: Greta Gerwig explains Barbie’s ending after record-breaking box office debut

Gerwig broke the domestic box office record for female director with ‘Barbie’ debut

Barbie cast turn London Eye pink to celebrate film premiere

Greta Gerwig has broken the domestic box office record for a female director, with Barbie debuting at $155m in North America and $337m globally.

The film surpassed the $103.3m domestic opening of Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman and the $153m weekend opening of 2019’s Captain Marvel, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Cinemas around the world were busier than ever over the weekend, thanks to the simultaneous release of Barbie and Oppenheimer, with excitement for Gerwig and Christopher Nolan’s respective blockbusters going into overdrive.

While Oppenheimer’s critical ratings have blown past Barbie with a near-perfect Rotten Tomato score, the latter, which stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has surpassed the Cillian Murphy-starring biopic’s box office takings.

In a new interview with The Independent, Nolan described Oppenheimer as “the biggest film I’ve made”. Murphy admitted to struggling to watch the film due to seeing his face projected on the screen, but acknowledged that the film is “designed” to be “watched with an audience”.

Meanwhile, Gerwig has spoken about her film’s “mic drop” ending, after breaking the record for the biggest box office debut by a female director.

Key points

• ‘Life in plastic, it’s fantastic!’: Barbie gets five stars from The Independent
• Read The Independent’s four-star review of Oppenheimer
• Mission: Impossible struggles at box office against record-breaking might of Barbenheimer
• Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy on Oppenheimer: ‘Taking that risk on behalf of us all – there’s nothing bigger than that’
• Oppenheimer’s women: the true story of the brilliant, complicated female figures behind the famed physicist

[22 July 2023 09:37 · Jacob Stolworthy]

Margot Robbie ‘really flattered’ by internet’s obsession with her feet

Margot Robbie has said she is “really flattered” by the attention her feet have received in Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated Barbie movie.

In the film, which was released in the UK on Friday (21 July), several closeup shots reveal Robbie’s perfectly arched feet. In one scene that went viral after the official trailer released in April, Robbie slips out of a pair of fluffy pink heels. However, instead of standing normally, Robbie’s Barbie stays on her tiptoes in a nod to how the toy doll appears.

While fans have praised Gerwig for the film’s attention to detail, it appears that others have become obsessed with Robbie’s feet.

[22 July 2023 08:40 · Jacob Stolworthy]

Christopher Nolan says Oppenheimer is ‘the biggest film I’ve ever made'

The Independent sat down with both Nolan and Cillan Murphy to discuss Oppenheimer.

Read the full interview here.

[22 July 2023 08:13 · Tom Murray]

Was Oppenheimer really the ‘father’ of the atomic bomb?

“It is always too easy to fall for the great man – or great woman – theory of history,” Guy Walters writes in a long read for The Independent.

“But the problem with the great man theory is that it seldom holds water, and nowhere is it more leaky than with Oppenheimer.

“To regard him as the ‘father of the atomic bomb’ is to ignore not only that the Manhattan Project was the result of a historically unprecedented level of teamwork, but also those others who are equally deserving of atomic fatherhood status.”

[22 July 2023 07:15 · Tom Murray]

Margot Robbie says she faked her own death because she hated her babysitter

Appearing on Zoe Ball’s BBC Radio 2 show on Thursday (20 July), Robbie, 33, recalled how she had once pretended to be dead as part of an elaborate prank she played on her adult babysitter.

“We got a new babysitter,” the Wolf of Wall Street star recalled. “I wanted my old babysitter back, Talia, who was like 16 and I thought she was so cool. And then we got this much older lady in and I was just not happy about it.”

Robbie said she then hatched a plan to fake her own death and went to extreme lengths to convince her new babysitter it was real.

[22 July 2023 06:16 · Tom Murray]

Are Christopher Nolan’s films right-wing?

That’s the question explored by my colleague Louis Chilton in his comment piece for The Independent.

The 52-year-old filmmaker’s work has long prompted speculation over his political views, from the supposedly pro-conservative Dark Knight to the anti-war messaging of Tenet. Does his nuclear biopic Oppenheimer hold any answers?

[22 July 2023 05:17 · Tom Murray]

The true story behind ‘the father of the atomic bomb’

Oppenheimer is partially based on the Pulitzer-Prize-winning 2005 biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer written by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin over a period of 25 years.

“Celebrated in 1945 as the ‘father of the atomic bomb,’ nine years later he would become the chief celebrity victim of the McCarthyite maelstrom,” Bird wrote in a recent opinion piece for The New York Times.

The film is the first to properly tackle the scientist and his legacy, which was marred by a controversial 1954 hearing that resulted in his security clearance being revoked.

Read here for the true story behind J Robert Oppenheimer:

[22 July 2023 04:17 · Tom Murray]

Barbie manufacturer accused of ‘stealth marketing’ in schools

Mattel has sparked criticism for “stealth marketing” to children after a new programme gave away free Barbie dolls in schools, a move that health experts are claiming reinforces damaging gender stereotypes.

The toy manufacturer launched the “Barbie School of Friendship” programme this year, in which free Barbie dolls were given to an estimated 150,000 students in 700 schools across the UK to teach social skills.

However, in an investigative piece published in the British Medical Journal on 20 July, many experts have questioned the programme’s potential negative effects of gender stereotyping, as well as companies freely marketing their products in schools.

[22 July 2023 03:18 · Tom Murray]

America Ferrera points out ‘revolutionary’ detail in Barbie Dreamhouse

In a new interview for the Harper’s Bazaar UK Summer issue, Barbie star America Ferrera, 39, discussed Barbie’s progressive but “inelegant” history since its creation in 1959.

Ferrera said that growing up, she was “never a Barbie girl” but there have been “revolutionary” moments in Barbie’s history when Mattel has made subversive statements about womanhood.

Ferrera pointed out that there was no kitchen in the first Barbie Dreamhouse, which freed the doll from expectations of domesticity.

[22 July 2023 02:19 · Tom Murray]

Voices: The real reason behind the Barbie movie backlash

“In the days leading up to the release of the Barbie movie, directed by Greta Gerwig, the film has endured various attacks by right-wing figures, whose issue with the movie lies in what they say is a ‘woke’ and ‘feminist’ agenda,” Nylah Burton writes for The Independent.

“No one has to like the Barbie movie, and I’m sure intelligent criticism of the film’s messaging and quality will emerge. However, attacking it because it doesn’t address ‘any notion of faith of family’ is not only ludicrous but untrue.”

[22 July 2023 01:22 · Tom Murray]

Will ‘Oppenheimer’ be released in Japan?

For obvious reasons, some fans are wondering whether Oppenheimer will have a theatrical release in Japan.

The Independent understands that plans for the film’s release have not yet been finalised in all markets. Japan also tends to release later than other markets with Barbie coming out 11 August there.

Read more here: