It’s Official. Now Christopher Nolan Has To Watch ‘Barbie’

The war between the Barbie and Oppenheimer box office numbers is one that I, personally, am very invested in as someone who has plans of attending a double feature on the day of (and will report back). These films are gearing up to go against each other in a battle of the giants. But before they enter the IMAX war, they have one competitor who is getting a running start: Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. Granted, there are only two weeks separating Dead Reckoning from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny but still, this is a packed summer.

You know who isn’t seeing this as a bad thing? The people who are bringing these films to us. Cruise was happy to share his love for movies in a post on social media in which he and director Christopher McQuarrie posed in front of posters for the upcoming summer blockbusters, holding up tickets for each of them.

It quickly became a meme because it shows how much Tom Cruise loves movies while putting an end to this “war” that was being talked about online. Especially since it really is rooted in our love for movies, too. It’s also made the already successful campaign for Barbie that much sweeter.

In response to Cruise and McQuarrie’s post, the official Barbie accounts shared director Greta Gerwig and star Margot Robbie recreating the post by holding up their tickets for Mission: Impossible, Indiana Jones, and their biggest competition: Oppenheimer.

This is perfect, it’s beautiful, I want all six of these images tattooed on my back because it is perfect. However, it also has fans now wondering when Christopher Nolan is going to respond.

Nolan, the ball is in your court

Do I think that Christopher Nolan would respond to these images? Honestly, maybe. He’s been known to have a sense of humor in his press tours, especially when he admits to his own children making fun of him. The thing is that, like Tom Cruise, Christopher Nolan loves movies, and more specifically he loves support moving theaters. If that means having a bit of fun where he also holds up pictures of ticket stubs standing next to posters of his competition, I don’t think he’d be against it.

So this is my plea to the Oppenheimer marketing team: Please lean into this. For all the Barbie/Oppenheimer jokes we make in this world, for my planned costume change between seeing the two movies (for the Instagram post), I do think that this summer is going to be the return of big movie blockbusters in a way we haven’t seen since the pandemic hit. And this “war” between four giants just makes it that much sweeter.

Christopher Nolan, it’s time to play into the fun. You have 24 hours to get yourself some movie tickets and stand in front of posters for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, and Barbie. We await your response.

(featured image: Warner Bros. / Universal Pictures)