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

[JustLurking]

Why the fuck is this a TLM vs Barbie thread now?

[Valonqar]

3 minutes ago, JustLurking said:

Why the fuck is this a TLM vs Barbie thread now?

 

because a TLM stan keeps posting Jordan Ruin-me's negativity about Barbie and acting like it's a gospel.

Edited June 29, 2023 by Valonqar

[Willowra]

2 minutes ago, JustLurking said:

Why the fuck is this a TLM vs Barbie thread now?

Disney vs WB? Less feminist(TLM) vs more feminist(Barbie)?

[filmlover]

3 minutes ago, JustLurking said:

Why the fuck is this a TLM vs Barbie thread now?

Given that it's become "Barbie vs. every movie" by now I'm almost shocked that no one has been bold enough to open a "biggest movie of the year" club. Congrats to Mario for setting the bar so high so early in the year.

[cupnoodle]

Barbie surpass 2.5 mutiplier is more important than any other minor things

WB is waiting a win from profitfitable movie

[Issac Newton]

Barbie's Journey in Japan

 

SIX-YEAR-OLD Machi Nishiyama was shopping for dolls in a Ginza toy store recently when she was shown two models. One was a glamorous doll named Barbie, a replica of a 1960's model, with a stunning figure, heavy eyeliner, a bare-shouldered dress and a pearl choker. The other, named Licca, was a smaller doll with big eyes and a plain, knee-length dress.

''I want Licca,'' Machi said without hesitation. Asked why, she pointed to Barbie and said, ''Because her eyes are scary.''

So it has gone for Barbie in Japan. Here, the world's most popular doll has always been a distant also-ran to Licca. With her bright blond hair, big blue eyes, white toothy smile and long legs, Barbie is simply ''too beautiful for the Japanese,'' said Atsuko Tatsumi, executive director of the Weekly Toy News, a Japanese industry newsletter. And Barbie's creator, Mattel Inc., the world's largest toy company, is not even in the top 20 suppliers in Japan, the world's second-largest toy market.

But this Christmas shopping season, Barbie is catching on, the result of changes to Barbie's features, changes at Mattel and changes in the tastes of Japanese girls. And now Barbie at least has a shot at joining Levi's jeans, McDonald's hamburgers and Apple Macintoshes in penetrating the elusive Japanese market.

 

 

Lesson one for Barbie: Keep your mouth shut. This is a country where women still cover their mouths with their hands when they laugh so as not to expose their teeth. After doing some consumer research, Mattel decided to soften Barbie's look for Japan. The main change was to close the mouth. Her skin color was also lightened.

Lesson two: Present Barbie in family settings, not as a professional woman-on-the-go. The rollerblading Barbie, a big hit in the United States, failed in Japan. But Barbie wheeling her baby sister Kelly in a stroller is a big hit here, as is Barbie's camping minivan.

''Kids don't aspire to be older in this market because when you get to be a teen-ager you study all the time,'' said R. Eric Weber, the president of Mattel K.K., the company's Japanese subsidiary. ''Until Barbie became more friendly and nurturing and warm and family-oriented, she could be a little scary to mothers and their children.''

Another American icon, G.I. Joe, also has not succeded in this pacifist nation, Ms. Tatsumi says. Boys' action figures center on television and film heroes.

If Barbie wins acceptance in Japan, it would be like a homecoming. Barbie was born in Japan, in that Japan was the original manufacturing site for the doll in 1959.

 

But when Mattel tried to sell Barbie here, it flopped. In the 1960's, as Japan was still rebuilding from the devastation of World War II, Japanese rarely saw foreigners and considered blond hair strange, said Soichi Masabuchi, who teaches doll esthetics at Japan Women's University.

 

Moreover, Japanese felt inferior to Americans. ''Americans had big cars and air conditioners when Japanese homes didn't even have refrigerators,'' Mr. Masabuchi said.

The doll that captured Japanese girls' hearts, Licca, was introduced by the Takara Company, a major Japanese toy manufacturer, in 1967.

Licca's success in Japan -- it has never really caught on elsewhere -- wasn't simply a case of Japanese girls preferring a Japanese playmate, however. Licca herself was said to be half French and half Japanese. She had round eyes and brown hair, not black, and dressed mainly in Western clothing. Mattel, meanwhile, came out with black-haired Barbies wearing kimonos, and introduced some Japanese companions for Barbie.

To Japanese girls, at least, Licca simply was cuter than Barbie. While Barbie has adult, if stylized proportions, Licca has an oversized head with the big doe eyes that are so popular in Japanese comic books. She was meant to be a fifth grader, not a teen-ager.

 

So Mattel teamed up with Takara in the early 1980's and introduced a Barbie tailored to the Japanese market. This Barbie was still blond but had a rounder face and bigger eyes. Lo and behold, it was a success. Other business developments unrelated to Barbie led to the breakup of the partnership a few years later. The doll, kept by Takara, was renamed Jenny and went on to become the second best-selling fashion doll in Japan. Mattel forged a new Barbie partnership with another Japanese toy manufacturer, but it was unsuccessful.

Sales improved after Mattel set up its own subsidiary in Japan in 1991, but remained disappointing. A year ago the company replaced the entire management team in Japan and recruited Mr. Weber, who had previously helped Cross pens and Friskies cat food break into the Japanese market.

A Leap Forward

This year, Mr. Weber said, Barbie sales are up 70 percent. Takara also reports strong sales of Licca and Jenny. Yano Research, a market research firm, estimates that Mattel will have 6.1 percent of the overall doll market this year, up from 3.5 percent in 1993. But counting only fashion dolls, Mattel, which is Tanaka's only competitor, will have 30 percent.

Other factors are also helping. Toys ''R'' Us set up its first Japanese shop a few years ago, after the United States pressured Japan to relax a law against large stores. Toys ''R'' Us now has 50 stores in Japan. It buys directly from manufacturers rather than wholesalers, making it easier to circumvent Japan's complex distribution system. Now, Japanese retailers are starting to buy directly from manufacturers.

But the biggest change is probably in Japanese tastes, which in growing more cosmopolitan (thanks in part to an avalanche of American marketing) have swung more in Barbie's favor.

 

Many Japanese teen-agers now try to dye their hair as light as possible. As testimony to the trend, Licca herself has evolved into a blonde. And although she is supposed to be a fifth grader, some recent versions have her looking like a foxy go-go dancer.

Barbie has also developed a cult following among young Japanese women, who hold her up as a paragon of figure and fashion. The Barbie Collectors Club of Japan has more than 300 members.

And the ''Barbie diet'' is one of the latest fads in Japan's weight-loss industry. Next year, a line of Barbie clothing for young women will be introduced.

''I don't think their doll is considered American like before,'' said Nobuhisa Yobata, a manager at Takara. ''Now there are kids who play with Licca and Barbie together. It's a borderless era.''

[Flopped]

Everytime I see Ken in Valonqar's avatar looking 48 I have to laugh 

[Valonqar]

2 minutes ago, Flopped said:

Everytime I see Ken in Valonqar's avatar looking 48 I have to laugh 

 

Bodes well for a movie that has lots of comedy in it. 

[vale9001]

The floor for Barbie is 80M OW. Tired with the underestimates 😅 Also tired with the "not everyone Is gonna like It". Ok like for every movie? Have you already seen it?.

The trailers are already selling an over the top fun movie and the demand Is there.

 

If nothing people are showing lately they want to be surprised, instead of getting the predictable a platform can give them. 

I rememeber when everyone here was like "old audience will hate Elvis cause It's now a traditional Netflix biopic" and they It got a 5x multiplier. 

Same for dune, joker etc...

Edited June 29, 2023 by vale9001

[Valonqar]

4 minutes ago, vale9001 said:

Also tired with the "not everyone Is gonna like It". Ok like for every movie?

[vale9001]

11 minutes ago, Valonqar said:

 

From first reactions the movie is fun, parodistic and everyone plays dumb. And then things became more serious and deep.  And people are talking about the movie because of these reasons.

 

This is EXACTLY why the trailers are selling. So i don't know why someone is acting like they're selling a movie about horses and then the movies is about dogs. I think people are going to theaters with a very precise expectation. 

Edited June 29, 2023 by vale9001

[Valonqar]

14 minutes ago, vale9001 said:

 

From first reactions the movie is fun, parodistic and everyone plays dumb. And then things became more serious and deep.  And people are talking about the movie because of these reasons.

 

This is EXACTLY why the trailers are selling. So i don't know why someone is acting like they're selling a movie about horses and then the movies is about dogs. I think people are going to theaters with a very precise expectation. 

 

Exactly. it's no bait and switch. 

[The GOAT]

3 hours ago, Willowra said:

Barbie is obviously going to do more than TLM, as tracking indicates that; the question now is whether it can do a billion or not. Could it be the next Joker for WB?

Won't even do anywhere close to Mission Impossible. Let's not kid ourselves here. Pun Intended

[vale9001]

70-80M for HR.

So 100m + coming

 

 

 

[Maggie]

1 minute ago, The GOAT said:

Won't even do anywhere close to Mission Impossible. Let's not kid ourselves here. Pun Intended

I think Barbie will do 300M. An 100M OW and legs for days as women targeting movies have better legs

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

1 hour ago, The Dark Alfred said:

 

There is a zero tracking indicating that. It also has zero shot at billion. I absolutely love Greta and pumped for this movie, but let's keep some sort of reality in place. Reviews and WoM will be decent, but it's not for everyone, so prepare for some backlash, that's inevitable.

Wrong

[Jonwo]

I think the winner of Barbie doing well won't be WB, it'll be Mattel.

[WittyUsername]

1 minute ago, Jonwo said:

I think the winner of Barbie doing well won't be WB, it'll be Mattel.

Can’t wait for the Mattel Cinematic Universe (MCU)! 

[RyneOh1040]

80 would be fucking huge for this. It definitely feels like a zeitgeist movie and if WOM is good it's going to make a play for 200.

[Valonqar]

Tracking keeps going up. Movies that get that often break out. You can measure and see rise in interest. I think it'll be a watercooler movie where people go see it to be a part of conversation.

Edited June 29, 2023 by Valonqar