Barbenheimer and the End of the American Century

Barbie was easy. The movie was playing everywhere, and there was no sense that it had to be seen in any of the special branded formats that movie theaters now offer: Dolby Cinema, Laser at AMC, RealD—let alone the bespoke analog formats that Christopher Nolan had commanded for Oppenheimer. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie was playing in Standard, and despite record presales and a massive, successful, vertically integrated and authentically viral marketing campaign for the film, I was able to get same-day tickets to a Friday showing and slip in among a crowd dotted with pink.