• by Wayne Friedman , July 23, 2023

The heavily marketed and anticipated films “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer," which opened on the same day over the past weekend, have become an internet meme known as "Barbenheimer" or "Barbieheiemer."

Warner Bros.' "Barbie," the film spun from the iconic Mattel fashion doll, delivered a record-breaking blockbuster weekend domestic opening at $155 million, according to Comscore. 

The movie also pulled in a eye-opening $182 million internationally, which in total took in a “staggering” $337 million for the three-day opening period, according to Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst of Comscore.

“Barbie” is the best 2023 opening so far, and one of the best since 2020 -- the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Universal Pictures' “Oppenheimer” -- the dark, mostly male-targeted film about the man who gave us the atomic bomb, over-delivered on estimates with a $80.5 million opening, according to Comscore.

The "Barbiheimer" and "Barbenheimer" memes highlight these two wildly different movies -- one light, comedic, pink and airy and the other dark, brooding and serious.

Amid all of the "earned media" push -- social media spin and other word-of-mouth efforts -- Warner Bros. spent a very modest $10.6 million so far in national TV advertising, according to EDO Ad EnGage.

This came from 3,600 airings of TV commercials, pulling in 1.6 billion impressions.

Universal Pictures pulled out all the stops -- spending $28 million in national TV advertising for 4,740 airings of commercials, and amassing 3.0 billion impressions.