Visiting the movie show this weekend was a cultural moment the likes of which hasn’t been seen in years — and for 2 movies that weren’t motion or superhero franchises.

At The Grove in L.A., and by all accounts all across the country, movie fans got here dressed as Barbies and Kens. One woman had the black-and-white stripe Barbie origin outfit all the way down to the heels, and added a Dior bag, natch. One other guy cribbed from the film trailer and sported Ken’s macho black-and-white Western look with fringe shirt. They took turns posing within the life-size, Instagram-ready toy boxes for photos and selfies. It was lovable.

One other young couple got here in Forties-inspired suits and fedoras, paying homage to Universal Pictures’ much darker tale, “Oppenheimer.” One other fan went full “Barbenheimer” in a pink suit and fedora, and one other repped the meme in a T-shirt parodying the “Wish You Were Here” Pink Floyd album cover featuring a pink-clad Barbie shaking hands with an on-fire Robert Oppenheimer. Wow.

Within the theater, there have been laughs, tears and cheers — and, not less than in Cleveland, I’m told, gasps when Margot Robbie opened her “Barbie” closet to disclose a set of Chanel. It was the final word real world-meets-fantasy-world tie-up for the Chanel luxury brand ambassador.

Within the midst of a near total Hollywood shutdown, the movies — which together grossed $244 million this weekend — represented the perfect of movie magic. Their success proved two will be higher than one, and competition can actually help in relation to a gap weekend. The consequence also owed rather a lot to those social media memes, which will be potent marketing tools (a lot so, one almost wondered if the studios got here up with “Barbenheimer” themselves).

The blockbuster weekend also suggested that moviegoers are pleased to pry themselves from their couches, and forgo streaming at home or on their phones to go to the theater — if it’s an experience.

Not less than at my AMC theater in Los Angeles, nevertheless, it might have been more of 1, definitely where retail was concerned.

The pump was definitely primed.

“Barbie,” Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s thought-provoking film across the problematic but lovable toy, has what should be a record variety of fashionable brand collaborations and licensing deals, including Aldo shoes in classic Barbie packaging, Ruggable rugs in Barbie pink, a Homesick candle in a “Dreamhouse” scent, a Pinkberry Barbie dragonfruit flavor, Perpetually 21, Nyx beauty and OPI collections, an Xbox console, Impala skates, Funboy pool floats, and more, more, more.

The shame is that none of it was available when consumers want it most — after they are on the theater under the halo effect of the film. Not even a Barbie T-shirt or “I Am Kenough” hoodie were on offer.

There have been a great deal of on-screen brand placements that might have been leveraged, too — the aforementioned Chanel, Chevy Blazer EV, Birkenstock — twice — and people Impala skates, amongst them.

As a minimum, Mattel or Warner Bros. could have displayed a few of the merch at theaters with QR codes to link and buy.

Universal could have gotten in on in-theater retail motion with “Oppenheimer,” too. Not necessarily something as crude because the nail polish shade Florence Pugh was wearing because the ravishing Communist Jean Tatlock within the film (though I used to be curious), but perhaps the book “American Prometheus,” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin that was the source material — I might have picked up a duplicate of that within the lobby on my way out.

As an alternative, consumers needed to go to individual retailers for the products.

Even so, “Barbie” may find yourself being a lift to all retail, even brands without official deals. Everyone seems to be marketing Barbiecore, or just the colour pink (including Birkenstock on its website). On Monday, Fresha, a marketplace and booking software for the wonder and wellness industry, reported that services tied to the Barbie universe, corresponding to pink and platinum blonde hair color, have recorded an 83 percent increase year-over-year in bookings.

But what about meeting consumers where they’re?

In fact, Hollywood studios have dabbled in retail themselves over time.

Warner Bros. had a 10-year run, with 130 Warner Bros. Studio Stores at the peak, lots of them in malls with movie theaters.

In 1995, Warner Bros. launched its first enterprise with a clothier, Todd Oldham, hiring him to design a set of clothes and accessories for “Batman Perpetually,” directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Val Kilmer, Nicole Kidman, Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey. Dresses, vests, hats, belts and hosiery incorporating the film’s themes were priced from $20 to $250.

The entire stores, including one on Fifth Avenue, were shuttered in 2001 by then-parent company AOL Time Warner.

Now, Warner Bros. partners with other retailers, most recently with Saks Fifth Avenue to bring its a hundredth anniversary branded merchandise to stores and store windows.

But wouldn’t or not it’s more practical to bring the “100 Years of Warner Bros.” collection to movie theaters themselves, and maybe exclusively to movie theaters, making a retail experience precisely where the studio can also be attempting to sell tickets?

Disney opened its first retail within the Glendale Galleria in 1987, and once operated 741 stores worldwide, but now only has 64, based on Forbes. As an alternative, Disney has opened shop-in-shops at greater than 200 Goal stores.

But now that entertainment and fashion are moving ever closer together, with celebrity designers leading luxury brands, maisons like Saint Laurent launching their very own film production wings, and Kering rumored to be buying talent agency CAA, it will look like an ideal time to take into consideration bringing retail to the concession stand. Bring on the movie merch.