Barbie | July 21, 2023 | Warner Bros | Margot Robbie is Barbie. Ryan Gosling is Ken. | Second most profitable movie of 2023

[lorddemaxus]

1 hour ago, WittyUsername said:

I’m not speaking in terms of quality. A Barbie movie directed and written by the people behind Marriage Story is intriguing for sure, but I don’t know if it’s something that will have much commercial appeal. Plus, this past year hasn’t exactly made a compelling case for Margot Robbie’s ability to get people into a theater. 

Gerwig did not make Marriage Story

[Last Man Standing]

2 hours ago, lorddemaxus said:

Gerwig did not make Marriage Story

She had a part in inspiring it, might as well count her as a writer.

[Cap]

9 hours ago, WittyUsername said:

A Barbie movie directed and written by the people behind Marriage Story is intriguing for sure, but I don’t know if it’s something that will have much commercial appeal.

Craig Mazin wrote Chernobyl. He also wrote Scary Movie 4 and Hangover Part III. Sometimes writers are capable of shifting tones and writing for the assignment. 
 

And I say that as someone who is not excited when it was announced those two are going to do Barbie. But the teaser looks so spot on that. I’m very excited now.

I also feel like this might be a case of: We are not the target audience. I get that Gen Z is different, but most 10-year-old girls don’t hang out on box office forums. I really really feel like people are underestimating how much brand awareness something like Barbie has.
 

As seen with Pika Pika, that doesn’t always translate into box office success. Yet, Detective Pikachu was not a straight up Pokémon movie with things like trainers, and Pokémon battles, and stuff that you traditionally associate with the brand. 
 

That trailer LOOKED like Barbie. Even the 2001 homage was VINTAGE Barbie. 
 

I’m also being enlightened to the fact that anything targeted remotely to women, that is overtly feminine, is being underestimated here, because you know, girls have cooties. 
 

[Cooper Legion]

Movie will do under 100 DOM

 

BO reasoning:

Spoiler

Too many cooties

 

[filmlover]

8 minutes ago, Cap said:

Craig Mazin wrote Chernobyl. He also wrote Scary Movie 4 and Hangover Part III. Sometimes writers are capable of shifting tones and writing for the assignment. 
 

And I say that as someone who is not excited when it was announced those two are going to do Barbie. But the teaser looks so spot on that. I’m very excited now.

I also feel like this might be a case of: We are not the target audience. I get that Gen Z is different, but most 10-year-old girls don’t hang out on box office forums. I really really feel like people are underestimating how much brand awareness something like Barbie has.
 

As seen with Pika Pika, that doesn’t always translate into box office success. Yet, Detective Pikachu was not a straight up Pokémon movie with things like trainers, and Pokémon battles, and stuff that you traditionally associate with the brand. 
 

That trailer LOOKED like Barbie. Even the 2001 homage was VINTAGE Barbie. 
 

I’m also being enlightened to the fact that anything targeted remotely to women, that is overtly feminine, is being underestimated here, because you know, girls have cooties. 
 

 

Barbie and The Little Mermaid: the girl power blockbusters coming to silence all the naysayers this summer.

[lorddemaxus]

5 hours ago, Last Man Standing said:

She had a part in inspiring it, might as well count her as a writer.

She did write Frances Ha and Mistress America with Baumbach and both were pretty light, fun films. Gerwig's directorial works were also crowdpleasers. And I mean, based on the trailer, it looks nothing like Marriage Story.

[WittyUsername]

5 minutes ago, lorddemaxus said:

She did write Frances Ha and Mistress America with Baumbach and both were pretty light, fun films. Gerwig's directorial works were also crowdpleasers. And I mean, based on the trailer, it looks nothing like Marriage Story.

I never suggested it looks like Marriage Story. I brought that up to make a point about how unusual it is that these people are involved in a Barbie movie. With that said, I didn’t realize that Gerwig technically wasn’t involved in that movie, but Baumbach did co-write this movie, and Gerwig still isn’t the kind of director you’d associate with a Barbie movie, so the point still stands. 

[Verrows]

2 hours ago, Cap said:

Craig Mazin wrote Chernobyl. He also wrote Scary Movie 4 and Hangover Part III. Sometimes writers are capable of shifting tones and writing for the assignment. 
 

And I say that as someone who is not excited when it was announced those two are going to do Barbie. But the teaser looks so spot on that. I’m very excited now.

I also feel like this might be a case of: We are not the target audience. I get that Gen Z is different, but most 10-year-old girls don’t hang out on box office forums. I really really feel like people are underestimating how much brand awareness something like Barbie has.
 

As seen with Pika Pika, that doesn’t always translate into box office success. Yet, Detective Pikachu was not a straight up Pokémon movie with things like trainers, and Pokémon battles, and stuff that you traditionally associate with the brand. 
 

That trailer LOOKED like Barbie. Even the 2001 homage was VINTAGE Barbie. 
 

I’m also being enlightened to the fact that anything targeted remotely to women, that is overtly feminine, is being underestimated here, because you know, girls have cooties. 
 

In fairness though, isn't our demographic lacking these days at theatres? ☹️  I could be way off but I think @TwoMisfitssaid something about it. Maybe that's why predictions on girl-centric movies are muted. At least I HOPE it's not just sexism....

 

 

[Cap]

10 minutes ago, Verrows said:

In fairness though, isn't our demographic lacking these days at theatres? ☹️  I could be way off but I think @TwoMisfitssaid something about it. Maybe that's why predictions on girl-centric movies are muted. At least I HOPE it's not just sexism....

 

 

Older woman have been the slowest to return to the movies. This is true. A lot of the bigger numbers are being lead by younger men. 
 

But all of the attendance has been slowly gaining. I think I saw something on deadline that 2022 was up 55% (I didn’t read the article, so I don’t know if that was attendance or just straight profit) off 2021. So. We will see. 
 

[Verrows]

33 minutes ago, Cap said:

Older woman have been the slowest to return to the movies. This is true. A lot of the bigger numbers are being lead by younger men. 
 

But all of the attendance has been slowly gaining. I think I saw something on deadline that 2022 was up 55% (I didn’t read the article, so I don’t know if that was attendance or just straight profit) off 2021. So. We will see. 
 

That's great news!

[Eric Prime]

https://thequorum.com/interest-is-very-low-for-barbie-is-it-time-to-be-concerned/

 

Quote

Something important will be happening this summer. With THE LITTLE MERMAID and BARBIE, studios will be releasing two high-profile films catered towards younger women for the first time in the post-pandemic era. Until now, titles like HOCUS POCUS 2, DISENCHANTED, and ENOLA HOLMES 2 were only available on streaming services.

 

Sure, we had THE LOST CITY and WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, but neither one of those are on the scale of MERMAID or BARBIE.

 

While the tracking numbers for MERMAID look very strong – it ranks #1 in awareness and #6 in interest among all the films currently being tracked by The Quorum – BARBIE seems to be struggling. With six months to go before release, is there cause for concern? Maybe.

 

But when we look at awareness, at 36% BARBIE (dark yellow) may be well ahead of CRAWDADS (tan), but it trails both HOCUS POCUS 2 (light yellow) and MERMAID (brown) at the same distance from release.

Unfortunately, the situation is even worse on the interest side.

 

Looking at the same group of comps, BARBIE (navy blue) has the lowest interest score at 4.7. That’s well below the score of 6.2 for MERMAID (black) at the same distance from release. Furthermore, interest in BARBIE seems to be declining despite the highly publicized teaser trailer from two weeks ago.

 

Interest is so light that BARBIE ranks 45th among all the films being tracked by The Quorum. And therein lies the problem. Awareness (rank of #18) for the film is proportionally much higher than interest (rank of #45), which suggests that even though people know about the film, they don’t necessarily want to see it.

 

Now, yes, it’s fair to say that we’re making judgments on a film that is still six month away from release. But, at the same time, Warner Bros. has given us as much material (still images, a teaser trailer) as MERMAID, yet the numbers for MERMAID are much stronger.

 

Ok, but MERMAID is a sequel to a beloved animated film. That must be a factor worth considering. Perhaps, but BARBIE is far from an unknown entity. She has been a beloved figure for decades. So it’s not entirely apples to oranges.

 

What does this all mean? Basically, it means that when the campaign kicks into full gear, the material that comes out has to be far more compelling than what’s been released so far. Otherwise, interest may languish far lower than anyone would like.

 

[Verrows]

1 minute ago, 3RIC said:

https://thequorum.com/interest-is-very-low-for-barbie-is-it-time-to-be-concerned/

 

 

Well that was predictable. I think people were hyper focused on the internet hoopla and didn't stop and ask themselves "But who's actually going to go to a Barbie movie?" I mean, obviously it will have an audience but it's quite limited.

 

I hope it breaks out unexpectedly though.

[MovieMan89]

This still seems like the definition of a breakout hit to me. I think people will eat up the narrative of “Barbie is one of the most critically acclaimed blockbusters of the year?!?” and it’s very likely to be that with the people making it. 

[MovieMan89]

Also has a huge advantage of coming at the very end of such a packed summer where it can actually have breathing room for WOM and legs that pretty much no other blockbuster this summer is getting. 

[John Marston]

Wow this is being over predicted big time. Where is this huge adult audience for a Barbie movie? And Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are not draws. The internet needs to understand that already 

Edited January 5, 2023 by John Marston

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

 

[Eric Prime]

6 minutes ago, BestPicturePlutoNash said:

 

That's reality though.

[TMP]

8 minutes ago, Eric Slay said:

That's reality though.

josh trank hot wheels??

[CoolioD1]

not 100% sure i trust margot's judgement. 

[AJG]

 

Is Barbie big with Gen Z?
 

My daughter liked Monster High more than this. I don’t know if we just weren’t a “Barbie Household” or if kids don’t care for this in general.