A pink wave overtook the world last weekend, and Pittsburgh was no exception.
The internet had been abuzz with anticipation for weeks leading up to the July 21 releases of Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” and Universal Pictures’ “Oppenheimer.” “Barbenheimer” became a full-blown online trend as film fanatics and less frequent moviegoers alike made opening weekend plans to check out Greta Gerwig’s take on the classic Mattel doll and Christopher Nolan’s J. Robert Oppenheimer biopic — sometimes back to back, and sometimes covered head to toe in pink.
It turned out that the hype for “Barbenheimer” was completely warranted, at least from a profitability perspective. Both films propelled the weekend box office to $311 million in total ticket sales, making it the fourth most lucrative weekend in Hollywood history. “Barbie” scored the highest opening weekend gross of 2023 so far by bringing in $162 million, while audiences flocking to “Oppenheimer” helped it earn a respectable $82.4 million.
Pittsburgh’s movie theaters felt the financial boost and candy-coated excitement generated by “Barbenheimer” during that three-day stretch. Just ask Carolina Pais-Barreto Thor, CEO of The Lindsay Theater and Cultural Center who said that more than 1,000 patrons showed up last weekend to watch “Barbie” and/or “Oppenheimer” in the six-year-old Sewickley nonprofit theater’s two screening rooms.
“We broke every record and had the biggest weekend of the life of The Lindsay Theater,” Thor told the Post-Gazette on Monday, after all the dust (and glitter) had settled.
“Barbenheimer” soared largely due to how rare it is to have two movies with polar-opposite dispositions releasing on the same day. Nolan’s three-hour opus on the father of the atomic bomb (played by Cillian Murphy) is a spectacle-heavy treatise on owning the destruction mankind hath wrought. “Barbie,” on the other hand, is a meta and aggressively pink look at modern gender politics starring Margot Robbie as the titular doll and Ryan Gosling as the main avatar of Kenergy.
There isn’t much in the way of Pittsburgh connections to either film, although “Barbie” does feature a cameo from Oscar-winning costume designer and Carnegie Mellon University alumnus Ann Roth. Fun fact: Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer, the renowned scientist’s wife played by Emily Blunt in “Oppenheimer,” reportedly spent her formative years in Aspinwall and graduated from Aspinwall High School in 1928.
Some local movie theaters saw “Barbenheimer” fever spreading in the weeks leading up to their debuts and began preparing for at least “Barbie” to achieve mega-hit status. Thor observed that “Barbie” seemed to appeal “across genders, generations and cultures,” at least among Lindsay attendees. She also said that more than 50% of the children and adults seeing “Barbie” — “and I’m being conservative” — were dressed in pink or as some element of Barbie lore.
“Oppenheimer” didn’t exactly lend itself to in-theater promotional tie-ins, but “Barbie” sure did. At The Lindsay, folks can still take Instagrammable photos in the theater’s “Barbie box,” check out the vintage Barbie display on loan from a Lindsay patron and purchase various concession combos that come with a Barbie sunglasses or pink rock candy.
Across the three Western Pennsylvania cineplexes owned by locally based independent theater chain MovieScoop, patrons could buy a “mega Barbie combo special” that included a Barbie popcorn bucket and “two sparkly beverages,” according to MovieScoop Director of marketing Liz Harper. Both Cranberry Cinemas and Moraine Pointe Cinemas had their own Barbie boxes, while Waterworks Luxury Cinemas boasted both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” selfie stations.
Harper said that “Barbenheimer” opening weekend “was probably the best weekend we’ve had all year” at all three theaters. In Cranberry, 6,000 people came through between Friday and Sunday, which more than doubled the theater’s foot traffic of 2,500 moviegoers over the previous weekend. After only welcoming 2,500 and 1,500 guests from July 14-16, 5,800 and 3,500 patrons stepped foot in Waterworks and Moraine Pointe from July 21-23, respectively.
“I think it made everybody really happy,” Harper said. “The whole hashtag phenomenon of Barbenheimer and how it caught on, it felt like a grassroots effort. It wasn’t a studio-propelled and crafted campaign. It really took off.”
Even local theaters not showing either movie got in on the “Barbenheimer” fun. Lawrenceville’s Row House Cinema plans to run both films at some point, but last weekend they were were content just designing “Barbie”-themed doughnuts and drinks for nearby Oliver’s Donuts and throwing a Barbie party Friday night at Bierport Tap Room, where “fierce and fun feminine energy abounded” and “we sold so many pink flights of beer,” according to Row House owner Brian Mendelssohn.
Rick Stern, owner of the Manor Theatre in Squirrel Hill since 1992, said the advent of “Barbenheimer” resulted in “one of the busiest weekends ever under my ownership.” The Manor didn’t go particularly hard on either “Barbie” or “Oppenheimer”-related accoutrements, though Stern did say their “Barbie Dream Car cocktail” sold well at the the theater’s bar.
The Manor’s “Barbenheimer” experience was a reprieve from the looming dread Stern is feeling over whether the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes will start impacting movie theaters if studios opt to move back release dates until after those labor disputes are resolved.
“It was the first weekend since the pandemic that it really felt like our business was back,” he said. “People were in a festive mood. I hope it lasts.”
MovieScoop and The Lindsay are also closely monitoring the situation in Hollywood. At this point, they know their best bet is to ride this “Barbenheimer” wave for as long as possible. The Lindsay on Tuesday announced that it will be bringing in Jim Clark, a nuclear operator at the Beaver Valley Power Station and docent at the Beaver County Industrial Museum, to give a free presentation on Aug. 6 that will connect “Oppenheimer” to this region’s nuclear history.
For Thor, “Barbenheimer” is proof that “when there is great product, people will come to the movies.” Those two films left Harper feeling “optimistic about the industry” and expecting Western Pennsylvanians to keep attending local “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” screenings.
“I think that everybody in the industry needs to feel the love a little bit,” she said. “And this did it.”
Joshua Axelrod: jaxelrod@post-gazette.com and Twitter @jaxelburgh.
First Published: July 26, 2023, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: July 26, 2023, 9:56 p.m.