NEW YORK (AP) Waves of pink-clad moviegoers passed under cardboard palm trees on the frenzied first day of Barbenheimer.

After a feverish drumbeat propelled forward by a mushroom cloud of memes, the most anticipated day on the years movie calendar finally arrived as Barbie and Oppenheimer two movie opposites brought together by cross-marketing fate landed in theaters.

I think its the contrast, said Lucy Ruiz, 17, as she and a friend made their way into the first showing of Barbie on Thursday at the Alamo Drafthouse in Yonkers, New York. If you want to do both in the same day, its like two sides of the same coin.

For Ruiz, the second half of her Barbenheimer would have to wait. Maybe next week, she said of seeing Oppenheimer.

But many are flocking to see both on opening weekend. The National Association of Theater Owners says some 200,000 moviegoers in North America have booked same-day tickets to each movie. The movie of the summer has turned out to be not Indiana Jones or The Flash, but a double feature.

I dont think Ive seen anything like this, says Michael OLeary, president of the theater association, who compared the phenomenon to a sold-out Taylor Swift concert tour. But while thats an amazing special event that captures the cultural attention, its not accessible to everybody the way these two movies are. This is a phenomenon open to everyone, regardless of where they live.