Wake up, consumers: It’s Barbenheimer weekend. Today marks the theatrical release of two movies that will forever be associated with each other despite having nothing in common: Greta Gerwig’s pink parade of Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s devastating biopic about the man who created a potentially world-ending bomb, Oppenheimer. And viewers have never been more amped to have whiplash.

The same-day releases from these beloved directors have created an internet meme-storm of poster mashups, merch, and a new question to judge everyone’s tastes by: “What’s the correct order to see Barbenheimer?” We’ll take an exit poll of the 40,000+ members of the AMC Stubs program who have tickets to see both movies on the same day.

Opposites attract bigger audiences

Barbenheimer takes a page out of the well-worn Hollywood playbook known as counterprogramming, in which very different films are released on the same day to attract wider audiences. In the past, theaters have typically offered a movie for dads to enjoy while their kids watch cartoons or played a light rom-com in the theater next to a screen showing a psycho killer stalking teens.

Some examples:

• This same July weekend 15 years ago, Christopher Nolan was a part of another famous double bill (the Dark Mamma) when his The Dark Knight and Mamma Mia! hit theaters on the same day. Both movies got butts in seats on opening weekend, though Heath Ledger’s legendary Joker performance brought in $158 million compared to the ABBA musical’s $27.7 million.
• Sometimes, the singing hits the right notes. Pitch Perfect 2 and Mad Max: Fury Road opened the same weekend in May 2015, and the a cappella romp scored $69.2 million vs. $45.4 million for the apocalyptic hellscape tale.

Bottom line: Counterprogramming done right can benefit both movies, giving each more visibility than it would have gotten entering the box office solo. We’ll see if that plays out this weekend. Analysts expect Margot Robbie and all her dolls to bring in $90 million–$115 million. Nolan and the bomb squad are looking at ticket sales closer to $60 million. Anything at the top end of those ranges would be a relief to movie theaters that have been eerily quiet this summer.—MM

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Recover like a champ.

 The Dan Snyder era is over in DC. NFL owners approved the sale of the Washington Commanders to private equity investor Josh Harris, bringing Dan Snyder’s turbulent and controversial 20+ years at the helm to a close. The team’s price of $6.05 billion is a record for an NFL franchise, but Snyder will have to give up some of his windfall right away. The league fined him $60 million following an investigation that found he sexually harassed a former employee and that the Commanders withheld revenue from other NFL teams.

 Car thefts up, violent crimes down in US cities. Motor vehicle thefts in 32 large US cities jumped 34% in the first six months of 2023 from the same period last year and are 104% higher than early 2019 levels, per a report from the Council on Criminal Justice. The think tank attributed much of the increase to a surge in thefts of certain Kia and Hyundai models after a TikTok challenge exposed how easy it was to steal them. Meanwhile, homicides are down 9.4% across 30 large cities in the first six months of the year.

 Air travel could get more tolerable. In bipartisan fashion, the House passed a bill that aims to alleviate the worker shortage that’s been plaguing the airline industry. The legislation is broadly about reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration for the next five years, but it also includes measures that would raise the retirement age for pilots from 65 to 67 and boost the recruitment and training of other airline industry employees, especially those critical air-traffic controllers. Passengers could use some help: Just this week, a full Delta plane reportedly sat on the tarmac in sweltering Las Vegas for four hours with no air conditioning.