POV: Are You Doing Barbenheimer this Weekend?

Background:

Today marks the cinematic debut of two highly anticipated summer blockbusters - Oppenheimer and The Barbie Movie. Both films feature A-list talent and noteworthy directors, but the one powered by a mega brand has seen its owner Mattel thrust it into the cultural zeitgeist.

Details and Implications:

Based on early projections, The Barbie Movie is outpacing all other films this year since Avatar: The Way of Water which debuted at $134m in its opening week. When Warner Bros. greenlit the project, they had estimated $75m, but what their estimates did not account for was the power of the Barbie brand when it met with social media.

News of the film started to gain traction when photos of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in “Barbie-esque” attire were leaked to the press in March 2022. The feeds began stirring as consumers wondered if a Barbie movie was happening. A month later, at CinemaCon, the studio confirmed that they were in development with a Barbie film starring Robbie and Gosling, to be released July 2023.

The teaser for the film was shot in the style of 2001’s Space Odyssey - there are currently 94.9millionTikTok views against “Barbie Space Odyssey” showing the two trailers side by side and the viral nature of trailer drop and the resulting user generated content was only the start of what has become a social frenzy.

Since the trailer drop, Mattel has initiated more than 100 partnerships in promotion of the film’s release. From collaborations with Forever21, Zara, Kendra Scott, to licensing the likeness of the dreamhouse featured in the film for Progressive Insurance, there is even a 4-part series on HGTV to build Barbie’s ultimate home. 

As the release date came closer, Warner Bros and Mattel armed the frenzied Barbie audience with the Barbie Selfie Generator - an AI powered image generator allowing you to simply uploaded a photo and received your own personalized movie poster, that you then share.

The film shunned established ‘premiere’ moments such as the Cannes Film Festival, instead hosting traveling pop up bars, releasing songs from the upcoming film, and adopting a continual meme-ifcation of the film and brand that creators and fans lapped up.

It is speculated, almost anticipated, that Oppenheimer will benefit from a “Barbie halo” opening weekend as viewers plan to see both films back-to-back – in what is being dubbed as ‘Barbenheimer’ – or built into a lunch, brunch, dinner and drinks schedule…very Barbie.

Summary:

Get ready for an assault of Pantone 219-C this summer and expect more brand led films in the future as Barbie’s parent company Mattel has plans to produce 14 more films for other toys in its portfolio based on Barbie’s early signs of success. 

Further Reading:

AdWeek | WSJ | The Drum | Barbie Selfie Generator

Authored by Kelly Garland, North America Invention Lead, Mindshare