Barbie and Oppenheimer set to launch at Greenock cinema

The picture house is expecting scores of locals to turn out for the blockbuster double bill of Greta Gerwig’s fantasy comedy ‘Barbie’ and Christopher Nolan’s epic ‘Oppenheimer’, which both hit the silver screen this Friday.

The simultaneous launch of the two polar-opposite films has attracted so much online attention that it has been given its own name, ‘Barbenheimer’.

The viral craze has spawned countless videos, articles and posts on social media, with some film fans opting to book tickets to see both films on the same day.

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West Coast Cinemas marketing manager Carys Knox told the Tele Greenock’s Waterfront Cinema was no different and that staff were expecting plenty of people to come along to see both movies.

She said: “We’re really excited, it’s going to be a big weekend for cinema in general.

“We’ve got a lot of buzz about it in cinema and a lot of the staff are excited too.

“They’re polar opposite films, but they’ll definitely bring in the cinema buffs over the weekend.

“There’s been a lot of discussion over ‘Barbenheimer’ these past few months, they’re utterly clashing films but a lot of people are wanting to see them on the same day.

“We don’t know what kind of audiences that’ll bring, it’ll be interesting to see who comes in over the weekend.

“There are double bookings in already, it’s exciting to see and it’s just getting busier as this week’s going on.

“Everybody’s been talking about this for a year now, waiting on this weekend double bill of these films coming out.

“There’s been a lot of talk about it with the recent premieres so hopefully that brings a lot of people in.”

The cinema is planning to get into the Barbie spirit by selling special pink sunglasses for movie-goers to wear.

The film, which is based on the line of Barbie fashion dolls released by Matel, is the first live-action Barbie film and stars Margot Robbie as the titular character.

Oppenheimer, a biographical thriller, is based on the 2005 book American Prometheus, which tells the tale of theoretical physicist J Robert Oppenheimer and his pivotal role in developing the first nuclear weapons.

Carys says that the cinema’s scheduling team took special care when planning their screenings to ensure avid filmgoers could see both films.

She said: “We’ve got three shows a day of each and when we did the schedule, we made sure that people could see them both in whatever order they wanted.

“We’re expecting lots of families to come in as Barbie’s a bright a colourful movie, but we think there’ll be a lot of adults in as well.

“We can’t wait for it, it’ll be an exciting weekend.”