Barbenheimer - Ten Great Box Office Showdowns

by Christopher James

This is the summer of "Barbenheimer". What started as a rivalry has morphed into a marketable double feature. In a way, they’ve hyped each other up, making this past weekend (July 21st-July 23rd) the most exciting and anticipated movie weekend of the summer. Both movies exist at opposite poles of the gendered film divide to a comical degree - the hot pink colored Barbie against king of the film-bros Christopher Nolan and his three hour 70mm extravaganza, Oppenheimer. The ultimate winner is the audience, who get two big-budget auteur-driven swings in one weekend. (Barbie won but both movies had huge opening weekends which will talk about tonight when the actuals come in)

This isn’t the only time counterprogramming has pitted a “boy movie” and “girl movie” against each other for a star-studded showdown. Here are our top 10 box office showdowns that served as fabulous precursors for Barbenheimer...

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Beauty vs Beast: Scream in your PJs

Jason from MNPP here - if you went and saw David Gordon Green's Halloween this weekend did you catch that voice cameo in the classroom scene? Mirroring a near identical scene in John Carpenter's original we see the granddaughter of Laurie Strode discussing the subject of Fate in her English class, and the voice of her teacher is none other than that of P.J. Soles, aka Lynda from the first movie and a total Horror Icon. Totally! And so we feel like giving some love to P.J. today, whose seal of vocal approval must count for at least 50 million dollars of its insane opening weekend box office. Totally. Just two years before Halloween Soles memorably co-starred in Brian De Palma's Carrie as Norma, another example of "girls making really bad choices in their best friends, and so let's face them down...

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PREVIOUSLY Clearly we're on a Halloween kick, having gone the Jamie Lee Curtis route last week - only this time it was Linsday Lohan who got shivved with a knitting needle in the neck, JLC taking just under 90 PERCENT of your vote on our Freaky Friday poll. Ouch, way to kick a redhead when she's down, y'all! Said Mareko:

"Lohan is indeed great in this movie—it still pains me to think of what could’ve been had she stayed focused on her talent vs. celebrity—but Curtis is the real MVP, no question. Love that the NYT stanned for her so hard in 2003, as you do, and she should’ve *easily* scored an Oscar nom over the likes of Naomi Watts and even Samantha Morton."

Beauty vs Beast: Ye Olde Switcheroo Movie

Jason from MNPP here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" -- this Friday the latest iteration of the freak-filled Halloween franchise hits theaters, but what of another Freaky Friday that cast the great Jamie Lee Curtis in a pivotal role? In 2003 - yes it turned 15 this past August, if you want to feel ancient) Mark Waters' remake of Freaky Friday with Curtis playing mama (then daughter) to daughter (then mama) Lindsay Lohan hit theaters, and it was a great big hit success with everybody. (I mean Jamie Lee should've snagged an Oscar nom, dammit.) So why don't we all eat a fortune cookie and repeat after me...

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PREVIOUSLY We ventured back to Wes Anderson's Rushmore last week and y'all took Bill Murray's side in a squeaker (just 53%) - said lylee:

"Team Blume only because Max is so annoying (even though they're both annoying, and Blume in some ways has less excuse to be so immature)! Really, the beauty here is Olivia Williams, whom I found very appealing in this, if a little softer-edged than in her later roles. She's still one of my favorite slightly-below-the-radar actresses out there today."

Barbara Harris (1935-2018)

by Nathaniel R

Barbara Harris in The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979)

Sad news yesterday. One of the nation's best and most underappreciated actresses Barbara Harris passed away at 83 from lung cancer. The Chicago native got her start as a teenager on local stages and was an original member of Chicago's famed Second City troupe. Her intermittent screen career sprang initially from her stage successes. Though her filmography is mostly in the 1970s, she made a few 80s movies before retiring including Peggy Sue Got Married, Grosse Point Blank, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Curiously for such a talented thespian of both stage and screen, she seemed somewhat ambivalent about her career, stating that she didn't miss acting after her retirement...

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Tweetweek: Dumbo, Depp, Ghostbusters

It's a tie for Tweet of the week with the first win going to cartoonist Lucy Knisley for her sudden Mrs Jumbo tweet flurry... but there's more to come including Isabelle Huppert, Helen Hunt, Game of Thrones, Bridesmaids, and Michael Fassbender after the jump...

Tweet of the Week Part 1 

Is Dumbo's mom a Disney princess? Is she the first wrongfully imprisoned princess, persecuted for mental illness? IS SHE THE BEST ONE!?

— Lucy Knisley (@LucyKnisley) May 23, 2016

Elephant gestation is 2 yrs. If I had to be pregnant for 2 yrs, I'd want a flying baby and a princess title AT THE VERY LEAST. #FreeMrsJumbo

— Lucy Knisley (@LucyKnisley) May 23, 2016

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