Barbenheimer

What does Barbenheimer mean?

Barbenheimer is a meme and viral trend centered around the 2023 films Barbie and Oppenheimer. The trend often involved people watching both movies as a double feature or creating memes that humorously combined the two movies. The term Barbenheimer is also used to refer collectively to these movies.

In 2023, the whimsical comedy film Barbie and serious biographical film Oppenheimer were both released in theaters on July 21. The two are very tonally different, and their being released on the same day became a common source of humor months prior to the release date. A trend emerged in which people encouraged others to watch both movies on the same day and created memes that merged both films together.

The trend became so popular that it was referred to as Barbenheimer and similar names. The name Barbenheimer was also used to refer to the act of watching both films one after another as a double feature. Additionally, the media frequently used the name Barbenheimer to collectively refer to the films. The cast and crew of the films were often asked about the Barbenheimer craze in interviews, and typically encouraged people to see both movies.

Both Barbie and Oppenheimer were very successful at the box office. Some analysts suggested that the success of both films may have been partially due to the Barbenheimer trend encouraging people to see both films.

After the films finished their theatrical run, the Barbenheimer trend also mostly ran its course. However, the term Barbenheimer is still jokingly used to refer to both films or similar instances where two tonally different events happen at the same time.