Ranking the Barbie-Oppenheimer Mash-ups, For the Love of Barbenheimer
Happy Barbenheimer summer, to those who observe. Yes, the middle chunk of 2023 will likely be remembered for several moments — a miserable heat wave, submarine horror, Donald Trump's indictment — but obviously, the most important thing is the shared release date for the Barbie movie and Oppenheimer.
The best part about the films both releasing on July 21 is that you'd think that the two diametrically opposed movies would have theatergoers picking sides but, really, everyone just wants to put Barbie and Oppenheimer together.
You might think that a bubblegum-meta comedy about the world's most famous doll and a grim n' gritty drama about the man behind the atomic bomb would make for strange bedfellows but, actually, not really.
I mean, it's not like a shared release date had any ill effect on The Dark Knight and Mama Mia!, which each raked in over $1 billion and $611 million at the box office back in 2008, respectively.
Anyways, these "Barbenheimer" mash-ups, as they're appropriately called, first appeared in June by way of charming bootleg merch but the trickle turned into a downpour by July, as hype for each film began picking up steam.
So, in the interest of simultaneously cataloguing the best bits and celebrating this joyous moment in cinematic history, I decided to list the Barbenheimer crossovers on a scale from Barbie to Oppenheimer. Why rank them from best to worst? We're all winners here.
Well, this one has to be the most Barbie Barbenheimer moment, because Barbie herself literally co-signed it.
This mash-up poster definitely leans more Barbie than Oppenheimer, what with that font and Ryan Gosling's perfectly himbofied Ken sitting pretty front and center.
Mushroom clouds aren't very Barbie but this one is extremely cute, so I'll allow it.
See above but less cute.
This is approaching near equal levels of Barbie and Oppenheimer but, because Oppenheimer is technically on Barbie's set (as opposed to the opposite), this one feels just a hair more Barbie.
Here we are, the one that started it all. A perfect balance of Barbie and Oppenheimer.
The artwork is stark enough to lean Oppenheimer but the fact that the Barbenheimer phenomenon has its own Wikipedia page is a win shared between both Barbie and Oppenheimer.
Obviously, anything bomb-related is gonna feel Oppenheimer-y but seeing this squat little thing in colorfully rendered 3D makes it look more cartoonish than the actual bomb, which I chalk up to the inherent flintiness of black and white photography.
Cutesy illustration with a grim edge? We're entering Oppenheimer territory.
Pink Floyd references are technically dated closer to the Barbie era than Oppenheimer, which takes places in the 1930s or '40s, but I'm getting Christopher Nolan vibes.
I'm giving both of these T-shirts a tie because, even though they're both Barbie pink (and feature Barbie herself), the stark, realistic rendering is pure Oppenheimer. It should go without saying that I want all the Barbenheimer T-shirts, BTW.
