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Credit: Warner Bros.Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer have been all anyone has been talking about for months, even prior to their release. Poised as the blockbuster event of the year, audiences geared up for double-screening events of both movies, referring to it as “Barbenheimer,” preemptively calling for award nominations and guessing which one would do better in the box office.
As Barbie has officially surpassed $1 billion globally, making it the first solo female-directed movie to hit that record, other movies like Disney’s live-action Haunted Mansion, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One have been disappointing releases in comparison. Barbie and Oppenheimer’s popularity has even spread to review and critic sites like Rotten Tomatoes (where Barbie has an average 86% rating while Oppenheimer has an average 92%) and Letterboxd.
Created in 2011, Letterboxd has become one of the most popular online platforms for sharing movie reviews with other viewers. For the last several weeks, the two record-breaking films from Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures have held the top two positions in Letterboxd’s “most popular” section when sorted by popularity. However, this week their positions were upset by the release of an Amazon Prime Original Movie.
Red, White, & Royal Blue is an adaptation of the 2019 novel by Casey McQuiston. Set in the modern day, the son of the U.S. president has an enemies-to-lovers relationship with the prince of England in a story about discovering yourself and coming to terms with being in a queer relationship (and being major political figureheads). The novel shot to bestseller status after its release and has gained a massive fanbase on social media, including Instagram and TikTok, and the film adaptation was finally released last week. Watch the trailer here:
According to Deadline, it was Prime Video’s number one movie globally during its release weekend and is now one of Amazon’s top three most-watched romantic comedies of all time, while causing an influx of new subscribers to the streaming platform. It’s also currently holding the number one spot on Letterboxd’s “most popular.” The film stars Nicholas Galitzine as British Prince Henry and Taylor Zakhar Perez as American Alex Claremont-Diaz.
rwrb has surpassed barbie and now is the most popular movie this week on letterboxd pic.twitter.com/BJCkul4WHI
— robin 📨 RWRB SPOILERS (@rileyauras) August 16, 2023
The film’s success has users on social media comparing it to Barbie, and the fact that while Barbie was slammed by some audiences for being “woke” and spreading secret LGBTQ+ messages, Red, White, & Royal Blue is blatantly queer, with both films seeing tremendous success. With loud anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments on the rise across the country, it may come as a surprise, the success of a female-directed and female-led movie about misogyny and patriarchy and a modern-day, multicultural queer love story directed by a gay man.
While the “go woke, go broke” crowd uses the phrase against everything from Disney to any movie they think pushes the boundaries of diversity, the success of these movies continue to prove them wrong. With Barbie breaking records and Red, White, & Royal Blue climbing to the top of Amazon’s charts while effectively pushing it and Oppenheimer out of the top spot on an audience review site, it not only makes the case that these are the types of stories audiences want to see, but it also makes the argument that streaming movies can be just as successful as movies released into theaters.
However, now more than ever, it continues to make the case in favor of the writers and actors on strike. Because even though that movie may be number one on Amazon and Letterboxd, it’s possible that the writers, actors, and other creatives that worked so hard on it won’t see more than a couple of dollars in residuals. Even Barbie, with it’s massive success and streaming release set for early next month, may never see its creatives earn much of anything from streaming residuals.
What do you think about the success of these films? Share your thoughts in the comments below!