Exactly one year and two weeks from today on July 21, 2023, the box office battle of the century will commence when Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer goes head-to-head with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, and things are guaranteed to get bloody.
On one side of the ring, we have an acclaimed and multi-time Academy Award-nominated filmmaker working with a cavalcade of A-list superstars, lauded character actors, and fast-rising talents, armed with a blockbuster-sized budget to deliver a potential awards season contender. And on the other, we have Oppenheimer.
Barbie has been positively dominating the online conversation thanks to a barrage of set photos and behind the scenes tidbits, most recently when Emma Mackey admitted several of the key players got together for a sleepover party. However, Oppenheimer‘s Devon Bostick took to Twitter to offer a rebuttal as the war of attrition continues, although we suspect he may have his tongue planted firmly in cheek.
Now we can’t stop ourselves from imagining Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, and the dozens upon dozens of other notable Oppenheimer alumni getting together in their pajamas to have pillow fights, eat snacks, and shoot the sh*t, even if we imagine Nolan would stick to his tried-and-trusted wardrobe choices by wearing the suit-jamas popularized by Neil Patrick Harris’ Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother.
Film fans still can’t decide whether they’re going to see Barbie or Oppenheimer when the day comes, and while there’s going to be a ton of people who choose both, the burning question is which one comes first on the agenda.