Cinephiles, our day of reckoning has come. Today, many of us will make a pilgrimage to our nearest theatre to spend an exorbitant amount on popcorn, nachos, and of course, Barbenheimer. But what looks to be a costly weekend for us commoners will be a drop in the ocean compared to what Warner Brothers and Universal Pictures have spent on Barbie and Oppenheimer, amassing a reported collective budget of nearly $320 million on production alone.
Barbie
Image credits – Warner Brother
During an interview with The New York Times, director Greta Gerwig reported that the production house has spent nearly $145 million on production. While Warner Brothers haven’t disclosed the detailed bill yet, there’s a good chance a large chunk of the budget was spent on the star-studded cast list, with both Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling allegedly raking in $12.5 million each. But what about the rest of it? We’d imagine the leftover pile was spent on buying as much pink as possible. No, seriously, as per industry reports, the movie caused a global shortage of the colour pink.
Image Credits – Warner Brothers
Additionally, while details are still iffy, the production company is said to have spent another $100 million on marketing alone, taking the total cost to nearly $245 million (allegedly). But Warner Brothers doesn’t seem to be losing any sleep over it, with Barbie expected to break the $100 million mark during its opening weekend.
Oppenheimer
Image Credits – Universal Pictures
Coming to the less colourful side of things, Christopher Nolan will be returning to the big screen with Cillian Murphy and an atomic bomb. Oppenheimer, which is said to be the director’s magnum opus, is based on a 2005 book, “American Prometheus” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, which follows the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, also known as the Father of the Atomic Bomb.
Image Credits – Universal Pictures
Considering the seriousness of the subject matter, Nolan has roped in an impressive cast list of Cillian Murphy, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, and more. As per the director’s recent media interaction, the movie is said to have cost nearly $180 million to Universal Studios. While most of it is said to have gone into making the movie as practical as possible, including detonating a nuke (sort of), the lead actor Cillian Murphy reportedly was paid around $5 million. Similarly, reports suggest that Emily Blunt and Robert Downey Jr. were paid $4 million, while Matt Damon and Florence Pugh made $3 million and $1 million, respectively.
The good news is that Nolan’s movies have an impressive track record of not only being critically acclaimed but also commercially successful. If the recent Rotten Tomato (93 per cent) scores are to be believed, the biopic appears to be on the right track.
