They faced each other in a box office royale that wound up mushrooming to become the biggest box office weekend of the year. Now, Warner Bros.’ Barbie and Universal’s Oppenheimer will go toe-to-toe at the Golden Globes on January 7.
Interestingly enough, coming away from the Golden Globes nominations Monday morning, Barbie bests Oppenheimer by only one nom, 9 to 8.
Barbie‘s edge over Oppenheimer comes in the Original Song Category, where the movie counts an unprecedented three nominations for “Dance the Night Away”, “I’m Just Ken” and “What Was I Made For?”
In addition, Barbie also counts nominations for Best Musical/Comedy, Best Actress Musical Comedy (Margot Robbie), Male Supporting Role (Ryan Gosling), Best Screenplay (Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach), Best Director (Gerwig), and a slot in the new category Best Cinematic and Box Office Achievement.
Gerwig earned her first directing nomination in a current career count of five Globe noms; the others were for Lady Bird (screenplay) and Frances Ha (Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical).
For Gosling, Barbie reps his sixth nom after La La Land (Best Actor Musical Comedy — his only Globe win), The Ides of March (Actor Drama), Crazy, Stupid, Love (Actor Musical or Comedy), Blue Valentine (Actor Drama) and Lars and the Real Girl (Actor Musical/Comedy).
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For Robbie, Barbie reps her fourth Golden Globe nom after Babylon (Best Actress Musical/Comedy), Bombshell (Supporting Actress) and I, Tonya (Best Actress Musical or Comedy).
Oppenheimer counts noms for Best Feature Drama, Best Director (Christopher Nolan), Best Screenplay (Nolan), Best Actor in a Drama (Cillian Murphy), Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr), Supporting Actress (Emily Blunt), Best Original Score (Ludwig Goransson) and Best Cinematic and Box Office Achievement.
With Oppenheimer, Nolan raises his Globes nom count to six; he has never won one. His previous four noms include for Memento (Screenplay), Dunkirk (Director) and Inception (Director and Screenplay).
Downey is already a two-time Golden Globe winner for Ally McBeal (Best Actor Supporting Role TV) and Sherlock Holmes (Best Actor Comedy or Musical), and three times if you actually count the special ensemble award he received with the cast of Robert Altman’s Short Cuts in 1994. Oppenheimer takes him to a sixth Globe nom that also includes for Tropic Thunder (Supporting Actor) and Chaplin (Best Actor Drama).
Blunt’s Globes nom career count goes to seven, the British actress having already won in 2007 for Best Supporting TV actress for Gideon’s Daughter. Her previous noms include Best Actress Musical/Comedy (Mary Poppins Returns, Into the Woods, and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen), Best Actress Drama (Young Victoria) and Supporting Actress (The Devil Wears Prada).
For Murphy, it’s his second Globe nom after 2006’s Breakfast on Pluto for which he was nominated in the Best Actor Musical/Comedy slot.
At the global box office, Barbie and Oppenheimer are the No. 1 and No. 3 movies of the year worldwide, respectively, with $1.4 billion and $951 million. Both movies’ battle at the box office repped a pinnacle for the year, with that weekend collectively making a massive $311M for all movies. It was the last time that America went back to the movies in bulk; the remainder of the year has been shaken by the aftermath of double strikes from writers and actors.