SINGAPORE – “Barbenheimer” brought moviegoers all over the world together in a major pop-cultural moment – and it was no different in Singapore.

A portmanteau of Greta Gerwig’s campy fantasy comedy Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s chilling historical drama Oppenheimer, the Internet phenomenon began circulating on social media before the simultaneous theatrical release last Thursday of the two highly anticipated yet diametrically opposed blockbusters.

With a run time of almost two hours, Barbie stars Margot Robbie as the titular doll who is hit by an existential crisis, while Oppenheimer is a three-hour biopic of American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy), who is known as the “father of the atomic bomb”.

The box-office rivalry quickly turned into potential for a double bill, as netizens debated the right order to watch them on the same day and cast members promoted one another’s films.

The big winner turned out to be the box office.

In North America, Barbie grossed more than US$155 million (S$206 million) and Oppenheimer pulled in US$80.5 million on their opening weekend. 

In Singapore, Oppenheimer – which is rated M18 – earned over $1.09 million from last Thursday to Sunday and beat Avengers: Endgame (2019) to be the biggest four-day Imax opening here, said its local distributor United International Pictures. Warner Bros Singapore declined to comment on Barbie’s local box-office performance.

Last Saturday, programme coordinator Amirul Hakim caught Oppenheimer in Imax at 3.50pm at Shaw Theatres Lido, and Barbie at 8.15pm at Cathay Cineplex Causeway Point.

The 26-year-old said: “I’ve been hyped for Oppenheimer and Barbie since the titles were announced. It’s been forever since I watched two films back to back, but I knew ‘Barbenheimer’ would be an important cultural moment.

“I’m a strong advocate that Oppenheimer should go first, so one can end the day with the cheery colours of Barbie. Turns out both movies were devastating in their own ways.”

He added: “Oppenheimer hit me like a truck, and I was glad I had the one-hour break to decompress with my partner before Barbie.” 

Mr Amirul calls Nolan “one of the greatest directors of all time”, and has watched his movies in theatres “for as long as I can remember”. He rewatches Nolan’s films, such as Interstellar (2014) and Tenet (2020), multiple times a year.

As someone who was more excited for Oppenheimer, Mr Amirul thinks the “Barbenheimer” experience challenged expectations.

“Barbie was, unexpectedly, an emotional rollercoaster. I really loved Barbie, and I am someone who watched Oppenheimer twice. I look forward to watching Barbie many more times.”

He added: “Doing ‘Barbenheimer’ is not for the faint of heart, because it’s emotionally intense, not to mention time-consuming. But it’s worth it for such an extremely rare and exciting double feature.”

Ms Tracy Low, 27, was also of the Oppenheimer-first opinion – which is the more popular choice.

The community manager – whose last double bill was Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and Aquaman in December 2018 – was intrigued by the “Barbenheimer” memes and decided to watch both movies last Saturday.

She and her two friends caught the Imax screening of Oppenheimer at 3.50pm at Shaw Theatres Waterway Point, and Barbie at 9.30pm at Golden Village Paya Lebar. She enjoyed the experience, but cautioned that a break is necessary as Oppenheimer is “a long film with heavy content”.

She said: “I chose to watch Oppenheimer first because I thought its political themes might be too heavy and Barbie would be a good palate cleanser as a comedy.

“I also wanted to leave the best for last, as I was more excited to watch Barbie. It was a highly anticipated movie on my list, and Greta Gerwig is one of my favourite directors.”

However, some Singapore moviegoers, such as undergraduate Jonathan Lee, 23, opted to kick off with Barbie instead.

He said: “My girlfriend is a The Projector loyalist, so our decision was purely logistical based on the showtimes it had.”

The couple spent their Sunday at the indie cinema at Golden Mile Tower, watching Barbie at 2.45pm and Oppenheimer at 7pm. In between, they grabbed dinner at eatery Siriwan Thai Food in the same building.

Mr Lee said: “We were worried about going in reverse, but Barbie ended up being a nice warm-up to get the movie critic juices going and primed for Oppenheimer.”

Although he was slightly disappointed by Barbie, he was pleasantly surprised by Oppenheimer.

“I’m not a big movie person, so I wouldn’t have caught Oppenheimer in theatres if not for the ‘Barbenheimer’ trend,” he said.

“If you’re contemplating ‘Barbenheimer’, just do it. There’s something about watching both films comparatively one after the other that you just can’t get with watching them on separate days.”