Just after the notorious Barbie and Oppenheimer duo, two more films with a starkly different tone are set to release in theaters simultaneously. Canadian children’s television series PAW Patrol and the iconic horror franchise Saw are set to both release new films on September 29, 2023.
Saw, a long-running American horror thriller franchise, focuses on a fictional killer named John Kramer, otherwise known as “Jigsaw”, that kidnaps his victims and puts them into traps or “games” where they must undergo severe psychological and physical pain to escape. The puppet he uses to communicate with them, named Billy, is the series’ iconic mascot. There are currently nine films in the series, with the tenth installment, Saw X, being the new film in question.
On the other hand (or paw), PAW Patrol is a Canadian children’s television series about a boy named Ryder and his group of rescue dogs that go on missions to protect their community. The television show was renewed for a tenth season in 2022. The franchise released its first film, PAW Patrol: The Movie, on August 20, 2021, and its second film, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, is the upcoming release along with Saw X.
This coincidence hasn’t gone unacknowledged. The official X account for the Saw franchise replied to the account for PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie with an image of Billy the Puppet completing one of the printable activity sheets made by the children’s franchise, stirring interest in the upcoming box office competitors even further.
The news of this dual-release date of two films with vastly different demographics harkens back to the summer’s viral “Barbenheimer” craze, with the film Oppenheimer, a biographical thriller about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his work on the atomic bomb, and Barbie, a comedy fantasy film about the Barbie fashion doll released in 1959 and directed at adult women who grew up with the toy. It became a comedic trend to visit theaters and see both movies back-to-back; now, many people are saying they plan to do the same with Saw X and The Mighty Movie, dubbing it “Saw Patrol”.
The tonal gap between Barbie and Oppenheimer was the comedy in combining the two- for Saw X and The Mighty Movie, the gap is even wider. With Barbenheimer, the two films were at least both directed at adults, but Saw is a violent thriller not meant for the faint of heart while PAW Patrol is a light-hearted children’s series about puppies saving the day from trouble.
It is in question whether or not the Saw Patrol trend will kick off with the same notoriety and success that Barbenheimer attained. However, excitement seems to be stirring ever since the announcement was made, and there is certainly potential for another dual release that will go down in pop culture history.
