Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer were last year’s biggest blockbusters, both releasing on the same day in July. Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos has asserted that these films would have achieved the same success if they had been released on the streaming platform.
According to a report, Sarandos stated that both films “would have enjoyed just as big an audience on Netflix.” Oppenheimer and Barbie both premiered on July 21.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos recently shared his views on the success of Barbie and Oppenheimer (often collectively referred to as “Barbenheimer”).
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Sarandos noted, “I don’t think there’s a clear-cut answer because the best version of something may work really well for Netflix but just hasn’t worked to date. There are some obvious exceptions, like we don’t do breaking news, because there are many other outlets for that. People don’t look to us for it.”
In discussing the extraordinary success of Barbie and Oppenheimer, Sarandos added, “Both of those movies would be great for Netflix. They definitely would have enjoyed just as big an audience on Netflix. So, I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that certain kinds of movies do or don’t work on streaming platforms. There’s no reason to believe that the movie itself is better in any size of screen for all people. My son’s an editor. He is 28 years old, and he watched Lawrence of Arabia on his phone.”
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Despite being from entirely different genres, Barbie and Oppenheimer sparked a box office battle that led to the meme “Barbenheimer,” as audiences were torn over which film to watch first. Greta Gerwig’s satire, starring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, grossed over $1 billion globally. Christopher Nolan’s biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer, featuring Cillian Murphy in the lead role, came close to reaching that mark as well.
