‘Barbenheimer’ Ongoing Brawl Extends Beyond Box Office To Oscar Nominations

The biggest weekend foes of summer 2023 continued their drag-out fight into Oscar nominations this morning, with Universal’s Christopher Nolan 3-hour physicist drama, Oppenheimer, beating Warner Bros.’ highest grossing movie ever, Barbie, 13 to 8 in Oscar nominations.

Never before in Oscar history have two summer blockbusters that opened on the same weekend, shown up at the Oscars in the Best Picture category.

That said there have been years when two big summer movies have duked it out for Best Picture. Those years were 1995 when Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 went up against Mel Gibson’s Bravheart (the latter won). 2009 counted three big summer movies which were up for Best Pic at the Oscars: Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, District 9, and Pixar’s Up — that’s when the Academy expanded the category to ten titles. 2010 saw Pixar’s Toy Story 3 and Nolan’s Inception. Last year saw summer tentpoles Elvis and Top Gun: Maverick as two of the top ten Best Picture noms; A24’s spring arthouse hit Everything, Everywhere All at Once won.