TikTok and Twitch Streamer @salty._.yuuri posted a video, which has racked up a whopping 6.4 million views, that captures a moviegoing experience of Barbie gone wrong.
In it, she captions, “They stopped the movie cause some people swapped from Oppenheimer to Barbie without paying. Came in to rescan everyone’s tickets.”
Apparently, some theatergoers had snuck out of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer to attend Greta Gerwig’s Barbie instead. The cinema decided to deal with this by pausing Barbie and re-scanning everyone’s tickets to confirm that it was the film for which they paid. The video shows a freeze frame of Ryan Gosling’s Ken as Yuuri pans around showing patrons reacting to this unusual, and very annoying, occurrence.
@salty._.yuuri tbh it kinda sucks cause we sat for a while so they could rescan everyone's tickets… don't room hop big movies cause people pay to watch a movie bruh #barbie #barbiemovies #teather #theatre #movies #barbiemovie #barbiemovie2023 #teens #kids #fyp #foryou #foryoupage ♬ original sound – Yuuri
Barbie and Oppenheimer have had a big cultural moment as the internet has aptly named their same-day release “Barbenheimer.” A promotional frenzy exploded prior to their July 21 premiere, with users on several social media platforms combining imagines and themes from Barbie and Oppenheimer and mashing them into fun memes.
This internet meme sensation and big marketing budgets from Hollywood Studios made “Barbenheimer” a huge cinematic and cultural moment for fans. Even Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer’s star, commented on the craze in this TikTok repost, “I think it’s just great for the industry and for audiences that we have two amazing films by amazing filmmakers coming out on the same day. Yeah, you can spend the whole day in the cinema — what’s better than that?”
This dual release has caused quite the buzz and may be the type of fun that’ll help to rekindle a collective love for going to the cinema.
With a movie industry that’s been trying to recover since taking a massive dip in 2020 and 2021, it’s nice to see fans so excited and equally willing to shell out their precious dollars for two vastly different films. Many are seeing both on the same day, back-to-back, but Yuuri’s video presents a different moral issue surrounding “Barbenheimer”— can you walk out of Oppenheimer and into another screening room showing Barbie?
It appears the answer is no, especially at a packed showing. It doesn’t help, either, that many movie theaters also sport reserved seating, further complicating matters and upping the potential for awkward customer interactions.
Users in the comments were a mixed bag as far as this moral quandary was concerned. One viewer opined, defending cinema-goers who paid for only one ticket, “I paid for a ticket, what does it mean if I change my mind and want to se another movie instead.”
Another put the onus on the theater, writing, “Put someone at the door checking. Don’t stop the movie. I’d want to be refunded.”
Yuuri was more critical of the patrons as the caption of her video reads, “Tbh it kinda sucks cause we sat for a while so they could rescan everyone’s tickets… don’t room hop big movies cause people pay to watch a movie bruh.”
Other users complained that this caused issues with folks not sitting in their assigned seats.
“Our show got paused because too many people were refusing to sit in their actual seats and wouldn’t move for the people who had tickets.”
Regardless of the financial implications surrounding movie tickets and theater hopping, it’s difficult to lampoon someone for following the rules of the theater and expecting everyone else to do so as well – pay for your movie, pick your seat early to get the best view and don’t sneak into another movie and steal someone’s seat.
All soapboxing aside, if you are someone who is upset about the current state of cinema, you may want to adopt the “vote with your wallet” approach. That is, if you want to see both, pay for both. Barbie is currently running at 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and Oppenheimer is at 94%. Bring all that positive “ken-ergy” to fellow moviegoers.
Update: @salty._.yuuri confirmed in a reply to a viewer that the customers who paid to watch Barbie did not get a refund.
“They should give free movie voucher for the people who had tickets for the disruption,” TikToker Raymond Montana commented.
In response, @salty._.yuuri said that because the workers “restarted the movie,” “it wasn’t necessary to refund” the customers for their tickets.
Her video amassed almost 2 million more views since Monday.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Yuuri via TikTok comment.
