This weekend, independent theaters in Scotland had to choose between two very popular movies. This led to a talk on the Internet called “Barbenheimer.” Greta Gerwig’s much-anticipated Barbie movie went up against Christopher Nolan’s historical thriller Oppenheimer, a clash of two very different types of movies. Many people chose to see two dramatic movies back to back, which made the battle even tougher.

But some smaller theaters in Scotland had to make a choice and choose only one film to show during the first week. Most of the time, Barbie came out on top in this tough choice. Hamish McIntyre, who works for Fort William’s Highland Cinema, said, “If you take a big flagship film it has to play on all the bigger screens all day. So we had to pick one. We couldn’t have them both at the same time. So I went for Barbie, because all of the international predictions are that it’s going to be bigger. It’s much more of a summer, family-friendly film.”

Some theater owners, like McIntyre, were glad they didn’t have to deal with the “Barbenheimer” problem because their theaters only showed Barbie movies, making it easy for moviegoers to choose.

Along with Highland Cinema, other well-known theaters like the Fraser Centre in Tranent, the Macrobert Arts Centre in Stirling, the Newton Stewart Cinema, the Oban Phoenix Cinema, and the Studio Theater in Dunoon all chose to show Barbie before Oppenheimer.

A programmer at the Oban Phoenix Cinema, Jennie Larney, said that the choice to show Barbie paid off, especially during school breaks, when families flocked to the big screen to watch it. Even though it hadn’t sold out yet, the movie was getting a lot of press and interest from people.