Movie theaters have had a hard time coming out of the pandemic, when ticket sales plummeted amid stay-at-home orders. But with a dual release of both Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer Friday, local theaters like The Lyric in Fort Collins are hoping for some salvation. Will ‘Barbenheimer,’ as the double feature has been termed, be the cure?
"This is something that just hasn't happened," said Ben Mozer, The Lyric's owner. "People actually want to go spend a whole weekend in a movie theater. It just hasn't happened since I don't even know when."
The two films seem — on the surface — to be incompatible. Barbie is a playful riff on the world of a childhood doll, while Oppenheimer tells the story of the man who helped develop the atomic bomb during WWII. But some say it’s just the right reason to see the two in one sitting, pairing a lighthearted flick with a heavier piece of cinema — though there’s controversy about which order to watch them in. Keep in mind, the total run time of both films together is nearly five hours.
Mozer said the Wes Anderson film Asteroid City set a post-COVID ticket sales record, but he expects Barbie to outperform that and even set an all-time record for his theater.
“The pre-sales of this movie are so high at this point, it’ll probably be the best performing movie we’ve ever had,” Mozer said. “From my experience of 17 years of owning a movie theater, I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Mozer added that the Lyric's previous ticket sales record was set by the 2018 rock climbing documentary Free Solo, and the one before that was Slumdog Millionaire in 2008. The long-standing record, he said, was indicative of a long slump in theater attendance.
Some theaters, like The Lyric, have scheduled both movie showings so that viewers can double-up in one night. In fact, IMDB and multiple other news outlets have reported that 40,000 members of the AMC Theatres loyalty program have already booked tickets for the double feature.
The Barbie-Oppenheimer double-up has been nicknamed ‘Barbenheimer,’ but the term isn’t just a way to describe the back-to-back showings. It’s become a viral internet phenomenon, with fans teaming up in support of one film or the other.
Mozer said this double feature craze may reach far beyond Fort Collins, but he’s not complaining. Local or global, the excitement around 'Barbenheimer' could bring movie-goers back into The Lyric's theater seats.
Aaron Varnell, the theater's self-titled "chaos cultivator," helps choose and schedule movies. He said Lyric staff are "racing" to put up posters for other upcoming events at the theater — which also hosts outdoor movies, concerts and dinners.
"Our plan as a local independent movie theater is to give all the people who come this weekend to see Barbenheimer an incredible experience," Varnell said, "So they realize that they can come and have a fantastic time at a locally owned venue and they can see the other things that we have going on."
The Lyric will premiere the movies Barbie and Oppenheimer Thursday night. The Sie Film Center in Denver will also feature the film duo starting Thursday.
