Warner Bros. Japan Outraged at BARBIE Twitter Page for Reacting to "BARBENHEIMER" Posts; Studio Responds
Warner Bros. Japan has released a statement on the country’s official Barbie Twitter account criticizing the studio’s U.S. branch for feeding into the “Barbenheimer” craze on social media. The Barbie U.S. Twitter account has positively interacted with some fan posts about “Barbenheimer,” which refers to the dual summer releases of Universal’s Oppenheimer, and Warner Bros.’ Barbie. The two films opened up on July 21st, and have been going strong at the box office, with Barbie leading the ticket sales. The duo seemingly brought theatres back full force as the opening weekend ended up resulting in the fourth highest-grossing box office weekend of all time.
But in Japan, where Oppenheimer hasn’t even gotten a release due to the historical impact of the true story, jokes about the film are considered to be in very poor taste in the eyes of WB Japan, especially from the U.S. branch of Warner Bros. The Japanese office made the following statement:
“We consider it extremely regrettable that the official account of the American headquarters for the movie ‘Barbie’ reacted to the social media postings of ‘Barbenheimer’ fans. We take this situation very seriously. We are asking the U.S. headquarters to take appropriate action. We apologize to those who were offended by this series of inconsiderate reactions. Warner Bros Japan.”
A note was added to the Twitter statement, saying:
“At 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945 (Showa 20), an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima for the first time in human history. The particular nature of the damage caused by the atomic bombs is that mass destruction and mass murder occurred instantaneously and indiscriminately.”
The interaction in question included WB responding to one “Barbenheimer” fan art poster which depicts Margot Robbie’s Barbie sitting on the shoulders of Cillian Murphy’s J. Robert Oppenheimer in front of a fiery atomic mushroom cloud, the Barbie U.S. Twitter account wrote, “It’s going to be a summer to remember.”
The “Barbenheimer” craze has drawn criticism in Japan for making light of the mass destruction caused by the atomic bombs. The hashtag #NoBarbenheimer has trended in the country in recent days. The studio responded with the following statement:
“Warner Brothers regrets its recent insensitive social media engagement. The studio offers a sincere apology.”
Barbie and Oppenheimer are both currently playing in US theaters, with Japan making no plans to release the latter.
via: Variety