Weekly Wave: Social media engineering boosted ‘Barbenheimer’ to cinematic heights

DULUTH So, how did you spend “Barbenheimer” weekend?

Did you devote nearly 5 hours to a couple of movies and collapse afterward into a popcorn- and cola-infused coma?

I put about 3 hours in for “Barbenheimer” (or as I prefer to call it “Oppenarbie” because that’s more fun to say). I watched another Christopher Nolan work of art with “Oppenheimer.” My “Barbie” experience will arrive later.

But what a fascinating piece of social media engineering/marketing, huh? Once someone mashed those movie titles together, social media ran with it and the movie marketeers weren’t far behind. They were probably in cahoots.

But the lexical blend (as it’s called by some) mostly took flight on the interwebs due to the movies being polar opposites: A historical drama and a comedy. One featured the desert tones of New Mexico and the other pummeled viewers with hordes of pink. A movie about a bomb and another about a bombshell.

Well, neither bombed.

People turned out in droves to see both, though “Barbie” has raked in the most box office receipts of the two films since they opened.

Much was opined about the order in which moviegoers would attend the two flicks. Most recommended seeing “Oppenheimer” first and then concluding the day with the lighter fare, “Barbie.” The thought being that it’s better to follow up the heady, darker movie with something more accessible and brighter (though, by most accounts, “Barbie” is a think-piece in its own way).

Indeed, even though I didn’t devote another 2 hours to “Barbie” last Saturday, I still found myself in need of an old-fashioned popcorn movie to wash away all that nuclear imagery.

So I ended the day streaming “The Meg” and swimming with a giant prehistoric shark in the wonderful waters of cinematic make-believe.

Here are some DNT highlights from the past week:

Cold, hard cash

First of all, please accept my apologies for posting a snowplowing photo in late July. I know many of you (including me) are still suffering a bit of trauma from last winter’s snowpocalypse.

But in a related story, we found out this week just how much it cost the state of Minnesota to clear the myriad miles of highway in the Land of 10,000 Frozen Lakes. No spoilers here, but it was A LOT.

DNT outdoors reporter John Myers shared that lofty price tag with readers this week. 

80 years of diagnosing autism

One of our summer highlights at the DNT is hosting interns and watching them hone their journalism skills in our newsroom … skills that they take back to their college programs in the fall.

One of our interns, Devlin Epding, is a student at the University of Minnesota and has a bright future in our industry.

His latest story for the News Tribune takes a deep dive into the history of autism and how its diagnoses and treatments have changed in the 80 years since its “discovery” in 1943.

Raiders of the Frost River bags

Harrison Ford’s iconic character Indiana Jones is fond of telling Nazis and other ne’er do wells that priceless artifacts of antiquity “belong in a museum.”

Well, sharp-eyed observers caught Indy carrying a bag during “Indiana Jones and the Dial Destiny” that belongs in Lincoln Park’s Frost River store.

So, Lucasfilm has a lawsuit on its hands. DNT arts and entertainment reporter Jay Gabler broke down the details of this dispute for readers this week. 

Catch a wave

Here are a few more stories from the past week to check out:

Ship study: Great Lakes shipping supports more than 240K jobs Rising price tag: Cost to convert former Duluth high school to housing soars ‘Piscatorial pursuits’: Rural Duluth man’s fish art brings metal to life Astro Bob: New Essentia hospital helps reduce light pollution Short Cuts: ‘Barbie’ wins blockbuster weekend at movies

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