It’s a ‘meet cute’ that only Hollywood and the internet could whip up. Barbie and Oppenheimer, two radically different American blockbusters, were both released in the Netherlands earlier this week. The unusual pairing has already led to long lines outside of cinemas around the country.

It has also inspired ‘Barbenheimer’, a pop culture phenomenon that has probably been filling up your social media feeds with doctored movie posters and trailers featuring characters from both films. Movie fans around the world have also challenged themselves to watch Barbie and Oppenheimer on the same day this weekend while debating which one should be seen first.

The global movie industry is betting big that these two opposites will attract filmgoers over the next several weeks. Cinemas and studios alike could really use a couple of hits after what’s been a painful summer so far. Inflation has taken a big bite out of the blonde’s global toy sales this year.

In the Netherlands, cinemas are looking forward to a lucrative weekend, especially since the weather will be unseasonably cool and rainy. An early ‘Barbie Night’ debut of Barbie at Leiden’s Trianon Cinemas on Tuesday seemed like something straight out of the film itself.

“I’ve been waiting all year for Barbie!” an excited attendee named Charlotte told the Leidsch Dagblad. “I was up at midnight to book tickets for the first showing,” another Barbie fan told Dutch News.

In Leiden, two sold-out screenings attracted hundreds of moviegoers, many of them dressed in pink, who eagerly took turns posing for photos in human-sized Barbie boxes at the entrance besides actors dolled up as the titular character and her would-be ‘himbo’ boyfriend Ken.

Demand for cotton candy Proseccos at the concession stand was so fierce the staff had to start pouring them into plastic cups after running out of champagne flutes.

In Rotterdam and Amsterdam, meanwhile, groups of pink-clad moviegoers have been spotted heading to their local cinemas over the past few days. The marquee at Amsterdam’s The Movies currently asks passersby: ‘Welke Kijk Jij First?’ [which will you see first?].

So which film will attract the most moviegoers here in Holland? Barbie is already drawing big crowds, but will Dutch audiences also turn out for a sombre, three-hour film about the theoretical physicist who was at the forefront of the Manhattan Project?

Barbie is currently showing on at least seventeen screens in Amsterdam while Oppenheimer has commandeered fifteen. Down in Rotterdam, Oppenheimer has at least seventeen and Barbie is lagging behind with fifteen.

“Both films are running neck and neck at the moment,” a customer service rep for the independent theatre chain that owns The Movies and FilmHallen in Amsterdam told Dutch News on Friday morning. “I would say they’re both selling about the same amount of tickets and we already have sold-out screenings for both films this weekend.”