And the shock box office winner is…. Oppenheimer. In India, the intensely cerebral physicist has outsmarted the tanned plastic doll who’s turned Los Angeles and the rest of the world dazzlingly pink. In most countries, the creator of the nuclear bomb has been blown out of the water by Barbara Millicent Roberts – better known to the world as Barbie. But not here where Barbie’s female-empowerment message and feminist-themed humour have left many cinema-goers cold.
After two weeks on Indian screens, director Chris Nolan’s blockbuster Oppenheimer has done the filmmaker proud, bringing in Rs 102.80 crore. The champagne corks are popping just as they did after the Manhattan Project team exploded the first-ever nuclear device in the Los Alamos desert. By contrast, Barbie’s pink Cadillac is cruising in the slow lane with Rs 37.70 crore in its box-office collection boxes. Not an amount for a pretty pink nose to sneeze at but not quite the bonanza director Greta Gerwig’s Barbie had been hoping to stuff into her handbag.
India’s been out of sync in the worldwide “Barbenheimer” screen battles. Globally, Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, made a stupendous splash and gas gone from pink to gold, collecting $850 million after just 12 days. It’s a smash-hit certainty that Barbie will soon be a Billion-Dollar Babe. She’s been such a huge hit that Barbie’s creator Mattel Toys is about to place its biggest bets on moviemaking and partly abandon the slow-growth world of children’s toys which has to share space with screen time in our modern world.
Box office collections
In fact, Oppenheimer will need one of the powerful binoculars used in the film to spot Barbie globally. The three-hour darkly moody biopic starring Cillian Murphy has reached a very respectable $412.44 million in box-office takings but that’s not even half as much as Barbie has made on her debut screen outing. Nevertheless, Nolan has beaten his earlier superhit Batman Begins which amassed $373.66 million. In fact, Nolan’s box-office pulling power is so enormous that this is only his sixth-most successful movie. His punchiest winners have been The Dark Knight Rises at $1.1 billion and The Dark Knight which came in close behind at $1.1 billion. Two others also set box-offices ablaze: Inception brought in $870 million and Interstellar was also richly successful at $773 million. And Oppenheimer looks almost certain to overtake Dunkirk, another of his superhits which had the cash registers ringing in $527.01 million.
“A lot is owed to Christopher Nolan’s popularity in the country. Nolan rose to prominence with the Dark Knight series and most Indians were excited to see the Nolan comeback, especially after the failure of Tenet (another Nolan creation),” says Karn Kasturi Sharma, project consultant, The Global Education and Leadership Foundation.
Nolan the superstar!
What’s certain is that if there’s a superstar Hollywood director here it’s Nolan, whose name itself is enough to fill theatres to bursting point.
What else went right for Oppenheimer in India? Of course, there’s Oppenheimer’s deep interest in Hinduism and his famous reciting from the Bhagavad Gita “Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds” as he watched the test nuclear bomb explode. Most crucially, though, theatre owners and other film industry giants placed their big bets on the nuclear Big Bang. Oppenheimer released on anywhere between 1,250 and 1,500 screens while Barbie, which has never been as popular in India as in the West, was only contracted to appear on about 800. “Many theatre owners were doubtful if Barbie would appeal to Indian audiences, particularly in smaller cities and towns.” says one industry analyst.
Still from the film 'Oppenheimer' File image
Was that a valid bet? Certainly, the pink-everywhere marketing may have discouraged some men from turning up for what some feared might be an excessively ‘girly’ movie. Says one young female moviegoer: “I’m going to watch Barbie alone and I’m choosing not to watch it with my partner. The reason’s because I honestly don’t want to go and watch it with a man,” says Protiti Bhattacharyya, a Heritage Walk Organiser.
Barbie only a 'girly' movie?
Others might disagree with that viewpoint. Bombay-based software engineer Mikhail Cazi has seen Barbie but still has to see Oppenheimer – he insists this is only because friends had already booked tickets to see the pink extravaganza. “I saw a lot of guys in the theatre for Barbie too. So, I don’t know if men were really reluctant to see it.” Cazi also believes that Barbie’s blowtorch marketing was less effective in India because it was mostly online here.
Some big city movie fans went to extremes and took in both Oppenheimer and Barbie in one eye-tiring day. But avid moviegoer Satya Dewan made it a point to see both movies in quick succession but on different days. “I think both movies should be watched with a clear mind, because there’s a lot to take in," says Dewan, who’s an event organiser. Dewan also believes that Barbie had less success in India because men may have been doubtful about it, particularly in smaller cities. “I think the whole idea of Barbie being associated with children or women is definitely a factor.”
Certainly, Barbie has been less of a smash hit in some Asian countries than it was in the US. In China it was a slow starter but then word-of-mouth began to work in its favour and it’a now pulled in a very respectable $30 million. By contrast, in South Korea Barbie has fared very poorly, and there are indications this may be because of strong anti-feminist sentiments in that country.
Political fallout of a 'doll' movie
In Vietnam, there’s been an anti-Barbie fallout of a different kind. In one scene there’s a brief moment showing a childish map of the world – but this map showed the nine-dash line which is all about China’s claims to almost the entire South China Sea. As a result, Vietnam has banned the movie and the Philippines has only accepted a version which has the map blurred. In the US one senator told news portal Politico that the map had been included purposely to win favour with the Chinese authorities.
As for Oppenheimer, that hasn’t made it to China yet and there are strong doubts whether it ever will. The movie depicts a period when the Cold War was at a ‘Reds under the Beds’ peak and throughout the movie there are constant anti-Communist references that will earn it a string of black marks from Chinese censors. In Japan, Barbie’s only opening after the anniversaries of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. For obvious reasons it looks as if Oppenheimer may never make it to Japanese screens.
Still from the film 'Barbie' File image
How Indian blockbusters fared
How have India’s own homemade blockbusters fared against the international screen assault? The Karan Johar mega starrer Rocky aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani started slowly and critics began to heap it with opprobrium. But it got word-of-mouth accolades and is now cruising along at Rs 73 crore and looks certain to be a centenarian. But the Karan Johar epic has been matched by Telugu blockbuster Bro which after eight days out has raked in Rs 75 crore.
Did Barbie suffer from preconceived notions in India? Bhattacharyya is convinced Indians started out prejudiced against Barbie. She says: “Oppenheimer is very traditional and people are comfortable watching a traditionally historic film. Nolan also brings a certain intellect and they’re like, ‘we’d rather watch this than Barbie.’ A lot of people see Barbie as frivolous.”
