You see, “Barbenheimer” has become trendy. A hashtag. The latest “it” thing. People are flocking to the theater not because of the films themselves, but because they don’t want to miss out. I’m not here to question the quality of the films and I’m certainly not here to pontificate on the political slant of the films (I’ll leave that discussion to the idiots), but to point out that I think this recent box office bonanza is more about zeitgeist than cinema.
And to be honest, something about that makes me uneasy.
There’s little that these two films had going for them that other films this summer didn’t. True, much of this summer has been dominated by sequels and spin-offs and these two are originals (kinda, Barbie is a pre-existing IP and Oppenheimer is a biopic), but if people are really that starved for originality, then why haven’t other original films this year been bigger hits? Why did Dungeons and Dragons underperform? Or Joy Ride? Asteroid City? Beau is Afraid? Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret? And so on.
Are these films simply popular for the sake of being popular? Are we looking at the cinematic equivalent of the Kardashians? If this is to be the new normal in Hollywood, what does this mean for future releases? Instead of relying on franchises and movie stars, is it now going to be about what’s trending, what’s a meme, what’s going viral?
Let’s be honest, most modern movies are regurgitated garbage. Overblown, huge-budgeted sequels/remakes that most folks want to wait for streaming to watch. I can’t say I blame them. I mean, I work at a movie theater and even I don’t bother watching that much.
I guess what I’m getting at is that while everyone else is celebrating and cheering this record-breaking weekend, I’m over here feeling uneasy. Maybe I’m paranoid. Maybe I’m seeing the writing on the wall.
Maybe…
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