Margot Robbie claims ‘Oppenheimer’ producer asked her to change ‘Barbie’ release date
During a new discussion with Irish actor Cillian Murphy, Barbie star Margot Robbie has claimed a producer on Oppenheimer asked her to change the release date of her summer blockbuster.
On July 21st, both films arrived in cinemas, which birthed the ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon and saw the two productions compete at the box office. While Barbie was higher grossing than Christopher Nolan’s latest movie, the latter still made more than $900million, which makes it the most successful biopic of all time.
The two movies benefitted from competing with each other, as did Hollywood. However, Robbie has now claimed Chuck Roven, who worked as a producer on Oppenheimer, pleaded with her to change the release date of Barbie to avoid a clash.
As part of Variety’s ‘Actors on Actors’ series, Robbie told Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy: “One of your producers, Chuck Roven, called me, because we worked together on some other projects. And he was like, ‘I think you guys should move your date.’”
She continued: “And I was like, ‘We’re not moving our date. If you’re scared to be up against us, then you move your date.’ And he’s like, ‘We’re not moving our date. I just think it’d be better for you to move.’ And I was like, ‘We’re not moving!'”
Robbie refused to follow Roven’s alleged request because she believed the two films made for a “really great pairing”.
She elaborated: “It’s a perfect double billing… Clearly the world agreed. Thank God. The fact that people were going and being like, ‘Oh, watch Oppenheimer first, then Barbie.‘ I was like, ‘See? People like everything.’ People are weird…I think they were also really excited by the filmmakers. People were itching for the next Chris Nolan film and itching for the next Greta Gerwig film. To get them at the same time was exciting.
Murphy added: “I think it happened because both movies were good. In fact, that summer, there was a huge diversity of stuff in the cinema, and I think it just connected in a way that you or I or the studios or anybody could never have predicted.”
In a four-star review of Oppenheimer, Far Out wrote: “With Oppenheimer, Nolan hasn’t just delivered an entertaining, thought-provoking movie as he had done with his previous efforts, but a thoroughly important one that informs even the most sheltered of us about the global situation we find ourselves in today.”
Meanwhile, in a four-and-a-half star review of Barbie, the publication stated: “This is certainly not merely a film to watch only once, to laugh and sing along to, and be done with. In fact, Barbie may just accomplish the greatest of all art’s tasks, and incite change. Don’t be fooled by her hype or her history; Barbie is an essential piece of cinema for the modern age.”
Watch the trailers for both films below.
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