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While the success of Oppenheimer has obviously been an incredible story when it comes to the health of the movie business, there’s no denying that — as is the case with most things in life — there’s a flip side to that coin.
Regardless of the way in which it’s presented and the political message it’s ultimately trying to convey (which is, spoiler alert, that nuclear weapons are BAD), the fact remains that Oppenheimer is inherently and unavoidably about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which is understandably a sensitive subject for the people of Japan.
This is now where Warner Bros. comes in, which was the studio that Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan used to call home and where he made iconic films such as The Dark Knight trilogy, The Prestige, Inception, and Dunkirk. In an apparent attempt to spite him and Universal, his new studio, they scheduled Greta Gerwig’s Barbie on the same date: July 21, 2023.
The move ultimately backfired, as the confluence of those two cinematic events created a social phenomenon known as “Barbenheimer”, which became so popular on social media that it eventually began breaking through to local news reports. In fact, it’s likely that the existence of Barbenheimer only fueled the performance of both films, as evidenced by their equally mindblowing box office totals.
Trying to get in on the fun — and, honestly, when does it ever go well when a brand tries to get in on the joke? — the official Warner Bros. account responded to a “Barbenheimer” fan art poster with a since-deleted tweet saying “It’s going to be a summer to remember.”
This, however, offended the people overseeing the studio’s Japanese division that they released an official statement condemning the company’s promotion of the trend.
“We consider it extremely regrettable that the official account of the American headquarters for the movie ‘Barbie’ reacted to the social media postings of ‘Barbenheimer’ fans,” Warner Bros. Japan wrote in a statement shared on Twitter.
“We take this situation very seriously. We are asking the U.S. headquarters to take appropriate action. We apologize to those who were offended by this series of inconsiderate reactions.”
— 映画『バービー』公式 (@BarbieMovie_jp) July 31, 2023
In response, Warner Bros. US has deleted the tweet and issued the following apology:
“Warner Brothers regrets its recent insensitive social media engagement. The studio offers a sincere apology.”
Both Barbie (which is tracking to gross over $1 billion) and Oppenheimer (~$750 million) are now playing in theaters across the world. You can check out the trailers for both films below.