Can Oppenheimer take on Barbie?

This week, two films are released simultaneously that could not be more different. In the pink corner is Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, a 114-minute long exercise in postmodern irony and camp revolving around the exploits of the much-beloved Mattel doll, given life and dragged into the real world. From the first trailer onwards, its mission has been clear: this is contemporary Hollywood at its most glitzy, mixing well-known intellectual property with a starry cast (led by Margot Robbie, who is overdue a hit) and a healthy dose of humour.

And in the black corner lies Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which seems to be another exercise in time-jumping profundity from the most pensive director in cinema, complete with an R-rating (unusually for Nolan, largely for sex and nudity), a three-hour runtime and the biggest bang of them all at the end. 

On paper, the films should and will attract vastly different audiences. Barbie is expected to open to a considerably higher gross, thanks to its more commercial length, 12A rating and general air of playfulness.