Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy Show Support for Barbie and Oppenheimer Competing at the Box Office

Only a few days separate the world of cinema for two of the most anticipated releases of the year to hit theaters together. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer from Universal Pictures and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie from Warner Bros. Pictures are set to dominate the summer box office with two very different stories, impressive casts and plenty of audience anticipation behind them.

A recent report from Insider revealed that sources told the outlet that the director was upset by his former studio’s decision to release the Margot Robbie-starring film on the same day as his own. However, in an interview with IGN, Nolan talked about how good it is for the industry to have two such big productions compete at the box office:

“Summer, in a healthy marketplace, is always crowded, and we’ve been doing this a long time. I think for those of us who care about movies, we’ve been really waiting to have a crowded marketplace again, and now it’s here and that’s terrific.”

Movie fans have, in fact, started a campaign to support both productions and enjoy double features to watch both one after the other. While actors like Tom Cruise have promoted the films, despite directly competing with Mission: Impossible 7, showing up on social media with tickets for Barbie and Oppenheimer. Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig have also posed with their Oppenheimer tickets, making it clear that the competition is very good for the industry.

Related: Oppenheimer’s First Reactions Anticipate Another Masterpiece from Christopher Nolan

Cillian Murphy Is Definitely Seeing Barbie

Oppenheimer’s main star couldn’t get away of being asked for the summer event of the year, and revealed to IGN that there’s no way he’s missing the chance of seeing Barbie in theaters:

“I mean, I’ll be going to see Barbie 100% — I can’t wait to see it. I think it’s just great for the industry and for audiences that we have two amazing films by amazing filmmakers coming out on the same day. Yeah, you can spend the whole day in the cinema — what’s better than that?”

A few days ago it was revealed that more than 20,000 tickets had been purchased to see both Barbie and Oppenheimer on the same day of their premiere, so the debut weekend of both projects could be full of people enjoying the two films in a row.

Beyond the joint campaign, Greta Gerwig’s movie is projected to surpass Nolan’s for the simple reason that Oppenheimer is the director’s first R-rated title since Insomnia, while Barbie is rated PG-13, expanding the range of audiences that will be able to see it. Regarding the budget, it is estimated that Barbie cost around $145 million, while the biopic of the “father of the atomic bomb” is around $180 million, as recently revealed by the director.

Matt Damon, who stars in Oppenheimer too, also showed his support for the films encouraging people to see them booth when asked about the rivalry:

“This is the first I’m hearing about it, actually. I haven’t paid any attention to that. People are allowed to go see two movies in a weekend. Oppenheimer is one of them!”