Séamas O'Reilly: Explaining the 'Barbenheimer' phenomenon and what it says about cinema

"The collapse of adult contemporary cinema was already being lamented for a decade before covid lockdowns arrived and, it would seem, cemented the final death of a certain type of cinema-going experience."

Barbenheimer, a study in cinema contrasts: "Now I am become Barbie Girl, the destroyer of Barbie worlds"

This weekend sees the release of both Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, two of the most hyped films I can remember in a long time. 

I do not necessarily mean the term “hyped” here pejoratively. It feels odd, even good, to be swept up in the sort of all-consuming razzamatazz that’s become rarer and rarer of late.