Before there was Barbenheimer: 17 other memorable movie matchups

Clockwise from top left: The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.), Mad Max: Fury Road (Warner Bros.), Barbie (Warner Bros.), Oppenheimer (Universal), Pitch Perfect 2 (Universal), Mamma Mia! (Universal) Graphic: AVClub July 21, 2023 will go down in history as the day of Barbenheimer–and we’re here for it. In short, the date represents the greatest current example of Hollywood counterprogramming, with the four-quadrant Barbie and the one-quadrant Oppenheimer opening on the same day. In a perfect world, both high-profile and expensive films will find an audience ... maybe even the same audience. Indeed, more than 20,000 AMC moviegoers have already purchased tickets to watch Greta Gerwig’s Margot Robbie-Ryan Gosling comedy and Christopher Nolan’s Cillian Murphy-Matt Damon A-bomb drama back to back. Adding to the fun, talent from both films have taken to social media to support each other’s projects, and even Tom Cruise got in on the action, too. All of which got us wondering about other times when of two very different films opened on the same day. There are plenty of examples in Hollywood history. Sometimes it was a brave little movie that refused to be cowed by an oncoming blockbuster. Other times it was an odd couple match-up that just made us chuckle. So check out our chronological list, and please note that we’re only considering films released in the past 50 years, because that’s a nice round number and, hey, we had to draw the line somewhere. [jezebel_slideshow]