The somewhat clunky portmanteau that’s on every moviegoer’s lips is…“Barbenheimer,” i.e. a double feature of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, starring Margot Robbie, and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy. Seeing both movies in quick succession has been endorsed by no less an authority than Tom Cruise, who “saved Hollywood’s ass” (in the words of Steven Spielberg) with the runaway box office success of 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick.

Got all that? Well: Just last week Cruise declared the start of summer movie season by sharing photos of himself holding movie tickets for various big-screen titles. “I love a double feature, and it doesn’t get more explosive (or more pink) than one with Oppenheimer and Barbie,” he wrote of the films, both of which debut on July 21.

Still, questions remain. In the lead-up to the dual release, many have debated the correct order in which to experience the bombshell and the atomic bomb: Does one kick-start their day by entering Barbie world first, before coming down with the less technicolor tale of Robert Oppenheimer? Or is the opposite—a dour start, then upbeat finish—the way to go? Cruise himself has now waded into this discourse, telling The Sydney Morning Herald, “I want to see both Barbie and Oppenheimer. I’ll see them opening weekend. Friday, I’ll see Oppenheimer first, and then Barbie on Saturday.”

While this is not technically a back-to-back double feature, Cruise is clearly jazzed about the theatergoing experience. “I grew up seeing movies on the big screen,” he continued. “That’s how I make them, and I like that experience; it’s immersive, and to have that as a community and an industry, it’s important. I still go the movies.”

Cruise’s summer-movie crusade has come amidst promotion for his own upcoming blockbuster, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, which hits theaters on July 12.