Warner Bros Japan slams its American counterpart over a Barbenheimer post on social media 

While the world is celebrating Barbenheimer, there's a controversy brewing in Japan over the two films- Barbie and Oppenheimer. Warner Bros Japan has criticised its American counterpart for a social media incident involving the two films. Warner Bros Japan has reacted to posts on the Barbenheimer event on Twitter, now known as X.

The term Barbenheimer was coined as both the films were released on the same day in most countries across the world.

In Japan, Barbie is set for an August 11 release while Oppenheimer's release date is not known.

The film is a biopic about theoretical physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, whose efforts to build the world's first atomic bombs resulted in the deaths of over 200,000 Japanese people in 1945, when the Americans attacked the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

“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,” Warner Bros Japan wrote in a statement posted on Twitter.

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“We take this situation very seriously. We are asking the US headquarters to take appropriate action. We apologise to those who were offended by this series of inconsiderate reactions. Warner Bros Japan."

Barbie's official Twitter account reacted to a fan-made poster of the Barbenheimer event. The poster showed Barbie sitting on Oppenheimer's shoulders with what looks like a nuclear explosion in the background. As a reaction to the post, the Barbie Twitter handle wrote, "It’s going to be a summer to remember."

Twitter has added a community note to the post, offering historical context. “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 note read.

The post has not gone down well with many in Japan who are only promoting Barbie and not Oppenheimer for obvious reasons.

There has been some controversy about the depiction of the bombing in the film as well. Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer has been massively successful both critically and commercially. The film recently passed the $400 million mark worldwide.