The Fight for Imax: How Studios Beg and Barter to Get ‘Mission: Impossible,’ ‘Oppenheimer’ and More Blockbusters on Premium Screens

Zack Sharf Digital News Director A new cover story from Time magazine on the making of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” reveals that Mattel president and COO Richard Dickson flew to the movie’s London set at one point during production to argue with Gerwig and lead actor Margot Robbie about one scene he believed was off-brand for the company. The director and her star convinced Dickson to keep the scene in the film by performing it for him live on set. “When you look on the page, the nuance isn’t there, the delivery isn’t there,” Robbie said. While the scene in question was not disclosed, Dickson’s concern is further proof that the upcoming “Barbie” movie isn’t just a sanitized love letter to the famous doll. As the film’s trailer says point blank: “If you love Barbie, this movie is for you. If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you.”

Fans eager to live out their inner child’s Barbie fantasy may now get the opportunity to.

McKinley Franklin editor Come on Barbie, we’re going to the Malibu dream house — Ken’s way! Fans can officially rent the Malibu Barbie dream house on Airbnb, as hosted by Barbie’s right-hand man, Ken (played by Ryan Gosling). He’s trading in his rollerblades and surf shorts to offer fans a one-of-a-kind experience this July at the life-sized, toy-inspired home, proving he’s more than “Just Ken.”  On July 17 at 10 a.m. PT, everyone in Barbie Land can request to book Ken’s room in Barbie’s DreamHouse at airbnb.com/kendreamhouse for two individual one-night stays for up to two guests. Selected winners will stay at the pink mansion in Malibu on July 21 and July 22, free of charge, to indulge in all the Kenergy that revamped beach home has the offer.

Christopher Nolan has said there’s an “interesting relationship” between the endings of Oppenheimer and his 2011 film Inception.In the director’s upcoming biopic, Cillian Murphy plays scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer who is credited as the “father of the atomic bomb” for his role in the Manhattan Project. The film is set to be released on July 21, 2023.Speaking in an interview with Wired, Nolan explained that there’s some similarities between Oppenheimer’s ending and the ambiguous final scene in Inception, where it was left unclear whether Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) was still in a dream.Asked whether he believed his films have an optimistic or “anti-nihilistic” outlook, Nolan said: “I mean, the end of Inception, it’s exactly that.

Barbie photocall at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills on Sunday, June 25. The Oscar nominee, who stars as Barbie in Greta Gerwig's upcoming film , attended the event in a hot pink Valentino dress while everyone else dressed in what can only be described as sandcore, the complete opposite of .Robbie wore a custom hot pink minidress splashed with large white polka dots, which was inspired by a dress from the real life Barbie's own wardrobe, according to her stylist . Like Barbie herself, the 32-year-old styled the look with white pointed-toe pumps that perfectly match the polka dots, a pearl bracelet, and a quilted and studded yellow bag.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter At the end of last summer, Flix Brewhouse faced a dire situation, albeit one that wasn’t unique to the Texas-based movie theater chain. There weren’t any movies to show in August. “We were going to A24 or Briarcliff Entertainment saying, ‘Does anyone have anything we can put on our screens?” recalls Chris Randleman, the company’s chief revenue officer. That’s not the case this summer as exhibitors grapple with a different reality. Can several back-to-back blockbusters succeed at once? Or will the glut of big movies cannibalize each other? Those are the big questions as popcorn season kicks into high gear with the arrivals of Harrison Ford’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” (June 30), Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” (July 12), Greta Gerwig’s neon-coated “Barbie” (July 21) and Christopher Nolan’s atomic bomb drama “Oppenheimer” (also on July 21). All of those films carry big budgets and require outsized ticket sales to turn a profit.

Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice are a part of the stunning “Barbie” movie soundtrack. The two are sampling perhaps the most iconic Barbie song of all time, Aqua’s “Barbie Girl.” Meet Ice Spice: The Afro-Latina leaving a mark in the rap sceneRosalia slips in an out of Spanish as she takes on the Hot Wings challengeKarol G releases ‘Watiti’ part of the ‘Barbie’ movie soundtrackA post shared by Barbie (@nickiminaj)The song is called “Barbie World” and the music video, directed by Hannah Lux Davis, shows Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice exchanging verses, being worshipped by different Kens, riding hot pink motorcycles, and walking in and out of a life-size dollhouse.

Dave and Central Cee are on track to spend a full month at Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart.

Members of the Directors Guild of America have overwhelmingly ratified a new film and television contract. The vote was 87% in favor to 13% opposed, with 6,728 members voting out of 16,321 eligible (41%).

Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice have joined forces to release “Barbie World,” an Aqua-interpolating instant summer hit they first teased last month in the global trailer for Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie. The track follows PinkPantheress’ “Angel,” Karol G’s “WATATI” feat.

Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice have released their new single, «Barbie World,» for Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated Barbie movie. Throughout the music video, there’s no shortage of pink as the duo is seen riding jet-skis through the clouds and living in their Barbie houses as they rap about being fabulous and «pulling in» Ken. The music video director, Hannah Lux Davis, exclusively tells ET, «It was a privilege to work with Nicki and Ice in close collaboration with the movie studio and Atlantic Records to create the visual for 'Barbie World.' The goal of the video was to create fantastical worlds that both artists could thrive in that could feel like an extension of Greta Gerwig's masterfully-crafted creative vision.»She adds, «Our 'Barbie World' coexists with the film’s effervescent, contagiously happy, playful, witty and empowering tone where anything is possible — and everything is pink! I’m such a huge fan of Greta Gerwig’s work, so to be even this close to one of her films has been an honor.»Produced by Ice Spice’s go-to hitmaker, RiotUSA, the rappers rhyme over a sampling of Aqua's hit 1997 song, «Barbie Girl.» This is the second musical collaboration between the female rappers following their last hit, the top-10 Billboard Hot 100 single «Princess Diana Remix.»«Barbie World» is the fourth single from Barbie the Album, following Dua Lipa’s «Dance the Night,» Karol G’s «Watati,» and PinkPantheress' «Angel.» The soundtrack and movie are out on Friday, July 21.Nicki Minaj—who released «Barbie Tingz» in 2018 and whose fans are known as Barbz— is planning to release her Queen follow-up on Oct.

Christopher Nolan has revealed that early screenings of Oppenheimer have left audiences “devastated”, with some even describing it as a horror film.The biographical drama stars Cillian Murphy as the titular J. Robert Oppenheimer, who is known as “the father of the atomic bomb”, and will be released in cinemas on July 21.“Some people leave the movie absolutely devastated,” Nolan said of early screenings in a new interview with Wired magazine.“They can’t speak.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. If Barbie ends up successfully escaping Barbie World, her mission in Greta Gerwig’s upcoming “Barbie” movie, she might find that the human world isn’t so different after all. Here on Earth, there are Barbie Lego sets and Barbie pillow cases, Barbie roller skates and Barbie underwear — the culmination of the dozens of brands jumping on the Barbie hype ahead of Gerwig’s highly anticipated and high-wattage film, out July 21. The latest product in the string of Barbie collaborations is a new electric toothbrush from the oral hygiene company Moon, who was announced today as the exclusive oral beauty partner to the “Barbie” movie. The limited-edition Barbie x Moon set, available today for $79.99, comes with a hot pink electric toothbrush and bubble mint whitening toothpaste.

Next month, Christopher Nolan‘s “Oppenheimer” faces off against Greta Gerwig‘s “Barbie” on its opening weekend, a showdown that very well may christen the summer’s biggest movie. In “Barbie,” moviegoers know what to expect, a smart, quippy film from Gerwig with a meta twist on its subject.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Christopher Nolan has a warning for anyone purchasing “Oppenheimer” tickets: The film might emotionally destroy you. Speaking to Wired magazine in a new interview, Nolan said that some early “Oppenheimer” viewers have had a visceral reaction to the film, which follows theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) as he creates the atomic bomb to end World War II. “Some people leave the movie absolutely devastated,” Nolan said about early screenings. “They can’t speak. I mean, there’s an element of fear that’s there in the history and there in the underpinnings. But the love of the characters, the love of the relationships, is as strong as I’ve ever done.”

“Like it or not,” declared Christopher Nolan at CinemaCon in April, “J. Robert Oppenheimer is the most important person who ever lived. He made the world we live in, for better or for worse.”

Universal trotted out a dog, some “possessed” girls and a Wicked light show, during its CineEurope presentation here in Barcelona, while also celebrating the studio’s force in the animated space and touting next month’s Oppenheimer from Christopher Nolan. All this followed a reel of filmmakers heralding the cinema experience which it had previously shown at CinemaCon in April.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Once upon a time in New York City, the three shopping havens for those in the know were referred to, in the words of Blair Waldorf, “the three B’s”: Bendel’s, Barneys and Bloomingdale’s. Bendel’s shuttered after 123 years in 2018. Next came the Hollywood-adored Barney’s, who closed its doors in 2020. Now, the last old-school, luxury retailer standing is Bloomingdale’s — and one more bold-faced “B” to revel in its glory: Barbie. In honor of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” which releases July 21, Bloomingdale’s decided to go all out in celebrating Mattel’s iconic plastic doll, who we can only assume would be a loyal Bloomies customer if she ever manages to escape Barbie World. On June 20, the retailer announced a series of Barbie-themed exclusive products, collaborations and pop-up shops ahead of the film’s anticipated release on July 21.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Christopher Nolan got honest about artificial intelligence in a new interview with Wired magazine. The Oscar-nominated filmmaker says the writing has been on the wall about AI dangers for quite some time, but now the media is more focused on the technology because it poses a threat to their jobs. “The growth of AI in terms of weapons systems and the problems that it is going to create have been very apparent for a lot of years,” Nolan said. “Few journalists bothered to write about it. Now that there’s a chatbot that can write an article for a local newspaper, suddenly it’s a crisis.” Nolan said the main issue with AI is “a very simple one” and relates to the technology being used by companies to “evade responsibility for their actions.”

This story about director the visual effects design of “Andor” first ran in the Drama Series issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.For Disney+’s “Andor,” an erudite elucidation of the prequel universe first seen in the film “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” visual effects supervisor Scott Pritchard took things back to basics in real locations, despite having technology that in 1977 might have made George Lucas Vader-breathe with envy.“I’m very much of the opinion that first and foremost, we’re storytellers,” Pritchard, who first joined ILM with 2015’s “The Force Awakens,” said. “We’ve got to drive the story forward.

McKinley Franklin editor Historian Kai Bird, co-author of the 2005 book that inspired Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” has shared his thoughts about the upcoming film, revealing that he has high hopes for how it can resonate with the public during a conversation with David Nirenberg at Leon Levy Center for Biography in New York. “I am, at the moment, stunned and emotionally recovering from having seen it,” Bird said. “I think it is going to be a stunning artistic achievement, and I have hopes it will actually stimulate a national, even global conversation about the issues that Oppenheimer was desperate to speak out about — about how to live in the atomic age, how to live with the bomb and about McCarthyism — what it means to be a patriot, and what is the role for a scientist in a society drenched with technology and science, to speak out about public issues.”

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “The Flash,” a superhero adventure starring Ezra Miller, emerged victorious over Pixar’s “Elemental” in a battle of the box office lightweights. This weekend’s two new releases were once expected to ignite the summer box office but instead entirely missed the mark, as “The Flash” stumbled with $55 million and “Elemental” collected just $29.5 million in their respective debuts. Both of those films fell short of already-low expectations. And worse, they were pricy endeavors, costing $200 million to make and roughly $100 million to market, so they are shaping up to be huge disappointments in their theatrical runs. In the lead-up to “The Flash,” executives at Warner Bros. worked hard to convince the public that the film is “one of the greatest superhero movies ever made.” Directed by Andy Muschietti, the story picks up as Miller’s Barry Allen a.k.a The Flash travels back in time to prevent his mother’s murder and inadvertently cracks open the DC multiverse. (Cameos abound!) But its tepid “B” CinemaScore from opening weekend crowds suggests that the moviegoing masses didn’t entirely agree with the lavish praise bestowed on the film by the people who made it. Without positive audience scores or strong word-of-mouth, “The Flash” will struggle to rebound in the coming weeks, especially as summer season heats up with the release of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” on June 30, “Mission: Impossible 7” on July 12 and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” on July 21.

“Barbie” star Margot Robbie gives a tour of her toy character’s fantastic plastic Dreamhouse in a video released by Architectural Digest on Friday.We learn that “there’s no water in Barbieland,” so Robbie had to mime taking a shower. That also means there’s no swimming in the pool, of course.

Margot Robbie is taking fans inside Barbieland! In a video for , the 32-year-old actress gives a tour of the Barbie Dreamhouse ahead of the release of the movie next month.The tour starts in the all-pink kitchen and bar area, which features both «obviously artificial» 2D decals and '50s-themed props. From there, Robbie walks fans outside to her «favorite design feature» of the house — the slide that takes Barbie from her bedroom into the waterless pool. «Not super practical, but nothing is for Barbie,» Robbie quips.Like the pool, the shower is sans water, as there are no elements in Barbieland.

EXCLUSIVE: Filmmaker Tyler Taormina (Ham on Rye) has wrapped production in Long Island on Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point, a Christmas comedy to star Michael Cera (Life & Beth), Elsie Fisher (Barry), Maria Dizzia (The Good Nurse), Francesca Scorsese (We Are Who We Are), Ben Shenkman (Billions), Gregg Turkington (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania), Sawyer Spielberg (Masters of the Air) and newcomer Matilda Fleming.

America Ferrera and Margot Robbie star in “Barbie,” one of the year’s most anticipated movies. Kate McKinnon and Issa Rae joined them at The Kelly Clarkson Show, where they discussed the plot of the movie and a sleepover the cast shared before they started shooting.Ryan Gosling says he ‘didn’t want to have kids’ without Eva MendesKim and Khloé Kardashian go on ‘Barbie’ adventure with their kids: See PicsLevel up with Karol G in her epic PUBG MOBILE mini-game adventureA post shared by America Ferrera (@americaferrera)Robbie revealed that the idea was Greta Gerwig’s, the film’s director.

There’s not a day goes by where the upcoming Barbie movie is not mentioned at least once. Starring Margot Robbie as the iconic fashion doll and Ryan Gosling as Ken, the highly anticipated feature film has also been directed by none other than Greta Gerwig. In the lead up to the big release - which by the way, drops on the 21st July in case you didn’t already know - all of the actors have been extremely busy galvanting around the globe doing press.

BreAnna Bell Kingsley Ben-Adir is just as excited as the fans to see Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” finally hit the big screen. As he caught up with Variety at Marvel’s “Secret Invasion” premiere in Hollywood on Tuesday night, Ben-Adir recalled seeing Ryan Gosling and the rest of the Ken dolls for the first time in full costume. “We all looked like absolute losers in a funny way,” he shared, adding, “It was hilarious.” He went on to say that joining the film was a no-brainer after reading Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s script. “From the first page, I was like, ‘Wow, this is really, really funny!'” Ben-Adir said. “I just heard such great things about Ryan and Margot. Then me and Greta went out for some whiskey. We spoke for two or three hours. There was a really strong sense from early on like she was trying to do something a little bit different.

she will appear (in a role of indeterminate size and onscreen impact) in Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” this July. This film is being structured as the start of a new franchise, but then that’s the talking point for every remotely commercial release in this IP-centric day and age. Whether that comes to pass will depend on whether audiences see and enjoy the film, be it in theaters or on Apple TV+ in numbers enough to justify a follow-up.

The Directors Guild of America has released a new video of associate directors and stage managers touting their support of the guild’s tentative agreement for new film and TV contract. The pact, which covers directors and members of their teams, is being put to the members for ratification.  

Barbie” is one of the most awaited films of the year. In order to promote the film and ensure that it reaches the widest possible audience, Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie will be making stops by some of the biggest cities in the world, including Mexico. Karol G releases ‘Watiti’ part of the ‘Barbie’ movie soundtrackAmerica Ferrera wore ‘grandma’ pjs to ‘sexy’ Barbie sleepoverKarol G explains her decision to contribute to the ‘Barbie’ soundtrackA post shared by Warner Bros.

When Christopher Nolan‘s “Oppenheimer” hits theaters next month, it marks the first film by the director not produced by Warner Bros. in nearly 20 years.

Kim and Khloe Kardashian took a trip to Barbie land on Monday during a fun-filled day with their kiddos. The reality stars shared a handful of pink-washed snaps from inside the World of Barbie immersive experience in Santa Monica, California, with their daughters, Chicago, True, as well as their nieces, Dream and Stormi.«Thank you for the most fun experience for our girls,» Kim wrote on her Instagram Story, sharing a photo of 5-year-old Chicago posing atop a unicorn inside one of the life-size toy box replicas. Khloe also got in on the fun, smiling alongside the kids in another life-size box and Barbie's iconic camper van.

Barbie is undeniably one of the most glamorous icons of all time, and we’ve got some great news if you’re looking to cop her style when you head to theaters to watch Margot Robbie bring her to life in Greta Gerwig‘s new movie this summer.

It’s summer movie season and there’s a big box office battle brewing in July.

Margot Robbie is one of the executive producers of Barbie and worked closely with Greta Gerwig to bring the Mattel doll to life. The star recently opened up about the one favor she asked of Gerwig when talking about the project.