DETROIT — July 21, 2023, was the most important moviegoing date in ages, and the reverberations from that day — when "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" opened in theaters — lead into Sunday's Academy Awards, where the two movies are up for a combined 21 awards.

As for head-to-head competition, it won't be much of a contest. "Oppenheimer" is so heavily favored to take home Best Picture that it would be a seismic shocker if it doesn't win, and it's also primed to collect statues for Best Actor (for Cillian Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (for Robert Downey Jr.) Best Director (for Christopher Nolan) and several below-the-line categories as well.

"Barbie" won't go home empty-handed, and is likely to pick up a Best Song Oscar for "What Was I Made For?" by Billie Eilish, and will be competitive in several other categories as well, including the costume and production design fields.

But beyond the Oscars, "Barbenheimer" was a true-blue cultural phenomenon. It spoke volumes about Hollywood, the current state of moviegoing culture and the future of the business.

There are many lessons that were learned, or at least should have been learned, from "Barbenheimer." Here are 10 of them:

—Double features can work

For years, studios have staked out release dates years in advance, claiming their territory on the moviegoing calendar and sending a message to competitors: back off, this is our date! For the most part, head-to-head competition between tentpoles is avoided, because there's too much, financially, at stake.

In the case of "Barbenheimer," neither Warner Bros. or Universal balked on July 21, and the strange dichotomy of the two films — polar opposite projects, at least on paper — created increased interest in both movies, and they fed off each other and became inexorably tied to one another in the public consciousness.

Rather than cannibalizing each other's audiences, they worked in tandem, and fans scheduled double features to see both movies, either back-to-back or within a couple of days of each other. They were not just an opening weekend phenomenon, with "Barbie" earning $162 million and "Oppenheimer" taking in $82 million, combining for the fourth-biggest box office weekend in history.

But they stayed in the Top 10 together for 10 weeks, and eventually earned a combined $2.4 billion worldwide. "Oppenheimer" was an early beneficiary of "Barbie" buzz, but the two films worked across the aisle to become the moviegoing event of the decade thus far. They were better together.

—Directors are brands

There are big, big stars in both "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer." But they're both director-forward projects, closely identified by and with their filmmakers.

"Barbie" is only Greta Gerwig's third film as a director, but her previous works, 2017's "Lady Bird" and 2019's "Little Women," established her as a distinct voice for her generation, an appointment-viewing director.

Christopher Nolan has been one of Hollywood's top directors for more than two decades, but his reputation as today's top commercially successful visionary really coalesced around "Oppenheimer."

Both films take on huge, culturally relevant subjects — an iconic doll in one, the nuclear bomb in the other — as filtered through the minds of their directors, which, as much as anything else on screen, became chief selling points to ticket buyers.

—People want real

Special effects have made anything and everything possible in the movies, but today's blockbusters are often rendered as a haze of computer-generated imagery that, after awhile, all begins to look like digital vomit.

"Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" are largely movies filmed on sets and locations that are tactile, tangible and real, made with elements you can reach out and touch.

The sets in "Barbie," especially, are physical throwbacks to the movies of yore, and the production reportedly used so much pink paint that it created a worldwide shortage.

Those images could have easily been created on a computer, but it wouldn't have looked the same, and more importantly, it wouldn't have felt the same to viewers. The warmth that people reacted to in the movie had a lot to do with its hand-crafted nature.

—Women are moviegoers, too!

"Barbie," wisely, was marketed to female audiences, who showed up in droves: 69% of opening weekend audiences were women, according to exit polling service PostTrak, a number that increased to 71% on weekend two.

That the film crossed generational lines meant mothers and daughters and grandmothers and granddaughters saw it together, as well as groups of female friends, who threw on pink clothing and made a night of it.

It's no coincidence that "Barbie" went on to become the year's top grossing movie, in large part because it recognized a traditionally underserved and overlooked audience. The lesson from "Barbie" is not to make more movies about toys — although Mattel is fast tracking a "Hot Wheels" movie — but rather to make more films by and about women.

—Quality sells

"Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" are both extremely well-made movies that gave audiences something to chew on. Your mileage with either might vary, and that's fine.

But critics and audiences agreed — which doesn't always happen! — that both movies were well worth the hype. On Rotten Tomatoes, "Oppenheimer" fared better, with 93% of critics and 91% of audiences reacting positively, to "Barbie's" 88% and 83%, respectively.

There are plenty of cases of poorly reviewed movies making boatloads of money, but "Barbenheimer" was an example of two critically lauded films, built on ideas rather than effects, raking in a ton of cash. Smart movies can be hits, too.

—Christopher Nolan is the king of Hollywood

There's a generation to whom 2008's "The Dark Knight" ushered in a new era of Hollywood, and that generation has come of age in the Nolan era.

He's now their established genius, their cinema god, and to them, "Oppenheimer" is his crowning achievement.

To that end, Sunday's Oscars will be his coronation ceremony, and he's a shoo-in for the Best Director prize, his first, and "Oppenheimer" will be his first Best Picture winner.

Nolan balances commercial and artistic credibility as deftly as anyone in Hollywood, and he's locked arm-in-arm with "Dune's" Denis Villeneuve as today's foremost creator of austere blockbusters.

The fact that Nolan turned "Oppenheimer," a three-hour dialogue-driven biopic about the creator of the atomic bomb, into a worldwide blockbuster is the ultimate flex of his muscle. What will he take on next?

—Movies still matter

Outside of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, "Barbenheimer" was the pop culture event of 2023, an example of Hollywood's power when it's operating at full strength.

The rise of comic book and superhero movies over the last decade and change has been alienating to those who long for a different type of big screen entertainment, and coupled with the setback of the COVID-19 pandemic, movies have had a rough go in recent years.

But "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" reversed course and showed the power and possibility of blockbuster filmmaking outside the superhero, action-adventure realm. And audiences responded. If you build it, they will come.

—Movie theaters still matter

"Barbenheimer" was a theatrical sensation, meaning that people, in 2023, had to leave their houses to experience it, in movie theaters, with strangers, in a communal environment.

That's after years of streaming platforms piling up, theatrical release windows shortening, movie theaters closing, social media rising, and a thousand other reasons to stay indoors and let the world come to you.

But people don't necessarily want that, at least not all the time. They want to go out and dress up and pay for the popcorn and oversized soda, and laugh (in the case of "Barbie") or not laugh (in the case of "Oppenheimer") inside movie theaters, which is where the two movies played exclusively for months.

Eventually they both came to streaming platforms and can now be seen from the comfort of your couch. But last summer, in order to see them and participate in the cultural conversation, you had to leave your house to do it, and millions participated in the ritual to feel a part of something bigger than themselves. And it felt great.

—Events can happen on their own

"Barbenheimer" wasn't created in a boardroom or dreamt up as a dual phenomenon. It became one organically, largely on the internet, and that's where it lived, and became a meme, before the two movies hit theaters.

That created a need to want to participate with it, which was better marketing that any studio could buy.

The internet is the most powerful tool we have, and it can giveth just as much as it can taketh away.

Had either movie not lived up to the hype, the bad buzz would have killed them. (Remember "Snakes on a Plane?") But "Barbenheimer" delivered, and the internet kept it alive and kept it cool.

—There might not be another 'Barbenheimer,' and that's fine

Two films, both alike in dignity, in fair Hollywood, where we lay our scene.

Both open the same summer's day, become elemental to their directors' careers, create a worldwide sensation and are each nominated for Best Picture to boot?

That kind of thing cannot be manufactured, and isn't likely to be recreated anytime soon. And that's fine.

Hollywood doesn't need another "Barbenheimer," it needs to apply the lessons it taught and apply them going forward, so that the post-"Barbenheimer" world is a fresher, happier, smarter world for both filmmakers and moviegoers alike.

Make better movies. Trust filmmakers. Take audiences on a ride. And don't chase the next "Barbenheimer." Instead, find the next big event, or events, that will inspire tomorrow's "Barbie" or "Oppenheimer" to come along and shake things up anew. Hollywood loves a sequel, but "Barbenheimer 2" will have to come on its own.

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The 96th Academy Awards begins at 7 p.m. Eastern Sunday on ABC.

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