We are, whichever way you slice it, living through a seismic moment in film history. Writers and actors are on strike, studios are doubling down on their interest in AI and lack of interest in many things actors and writers are striking for. But at the same time as so much is under threat, the last week has been miraculous for theaters all over the world. Who would have thought that two of the biggest films, maybe, of this decade, could coexist so perfectly? 

Even my dad, not quite a cinephile, has been asking me about Barbenheimer. Theaters on every continent sold out with tens of screenings of Barbie per day. Projectionists literally have their hands too full with Christopher Nolan’s 70mm print of Oppenheimer to give time to anything else (at the independent cinema Watershed in Bristol, UK, you can only see Barbie for the next week—the vital, dynamic festival Cinema Rediscovered has taken priority over other films for this theater’s projectionists.) 

Greta Gerwig has made history with the highest-grossing opening weekend for a film directed by a woman. We’re talking $162 million at the US box office for just one weekend—which makes the domestic $82 million for Oppenheimer look like pocket change, until you clock the near $500 million combined number for both films globally. And then, of course, there’s some pretty record-breaking numbers happening in the Letterboxd data as well. 

But just as Barbie is also about Ken, Barbenheimer (or Boppie as some like to call it) is also about Robert J. Oppenheimer. There is so much love and excitement for Barbie, in part, because there is so much love and excitement for Oppenheimer. And vice versa. Proof: of the 153,000 members who logged Barbie and Oppenheimer between last Thursday and Sunday, more than 90,000 logged both on the same day. Between the 20,000 fans (reminder: members who now have the film in their four favorites) of Barbie and the 10,000 fans of Oppenheimer, more than 800 now proudly display both together.  

As I scrolled through these logs, I found one Letterboxd member, Trevor Matteson, who had watched Barbie four times in theaters and Oppenheimer three times in the space of four days. After we speak, another Barbie log is added. “The only way I can describe last weekend is euphoric—and exhausting, but mainly euphoric,” they tell me. “I was obsessed with Barbie from the first frame, and getting to experience it with new audiences, family members and friends all weekend was so special. Oppenheimer felt like a challenge. Engaging with the film for a total of nine hours over the course of three days was incredibly draining, but so rewarding.” 

Or maybe you are not a Barbenheimer kind of girl or guy. The third-most popular review of Oppenheimer mentions Gerwig’s film specifically to explain why they were not partaking in a Barbenheimer day. “Kinda speechless ngl,” writes James. “Glad I decided to see Barbie tomorrow cause this is NOT a feature you want to pair with anything. Gonna spend the rest of the day lying down, trying to process all of this, and crying. Or maybe I’ll just play more Pikmin 4 idk.” 

The debate persists: if you’re still planning to watch both on the same day, which one first? Of the approximately 90,000 members who braved Barbenheimer, we can reveal that over 60 percent of cinemagoers logged Oppenheimer first, Barbie second. It’s a narrow majority. Perhaps the better question is: why limit yourself to one viewing of each? Trevor tells me their Oppenheimer rewatches “kind of happened accidentally. I didn’t entirely know how to feel after my first watch, so I impulsively rewatched it just four hours after my first screening and everything fell into place. On a third watch, I fell in love.” 

The lists don’t lie, nor do the curves moving in one direction only. Oppenheimer, best preferred by Letterboxd members with a little pink dessert, is blowing up in the ratings. Barbie is getting more people to theaters than we could have imagined. How gorgeous to unspool numbers tracking both quantity and quality (always subjective, never unimportant) in two wildly different, yet somehow deeply connected, summer blockbusters. 

It’s a record-breaking, expectation-defying time. With great uncertainty for workers—much of the union action is set around the residual value of creative work and the profit that work creates for studio and streaming owners—audiences are playing their part. “It’s just amazing to me that this weekend exists,” concludes Trevor, while quietly planning a few more weekends exactly like it. “Yes, I’ve already made a lot of poor financial decisions on Barbenheimer—so a few more will be drops in the ocean.” 

Finally, a plea from Teddy via a four-star review of They Cloned Tyrone: don’t forget the little guys. “‘Barbenheimer Barbenheimer Barbenheimer’ is all I hear about when this is the true MVP to come out that weekend.”