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

[redfirebird2008]

7 minutes ago, Ryan Reynolds said:

still we think Barbie peaks decades ago , apparently not , but maybe this opens to Beauty and The Beast numbers with inflation added , i think the surprise is the mad rush to see opening weekend

 

Google says 85-90% of females have owned a Barbie doll in their lives. That's insane. That is far bigger built-in audience than any of the superhero stuff that people might bring up. Even Spider-Man (bigger than Batman) does not have that type of brand saturation with boys and men.

 

These days everything at the box office is all about franchises and brand recognition. It's why Disney went on a rampage buying out everyone with established popular brands (PIXAR, Marvel, Lucasfilm). My cousin was big into Barbie dolls when she was a kid. Guessing she and others her age will be going to this movie, perhaps multiple times. 

[redfirebird2008]

3 minutes ago, BestPicturePlutoNash said:

???????????

 

4 different Batman films broke the opening weekend record (Batman, Returns, Forever, The Dark Knight)

 

And Google says 85-90% of females have owned a Barbie doll. That's an insane number. I feel very confident that a much, much lower percentage of males is interested enough in Batman to own a Batman comic or toy. 

[vale9001]

This Barbie movie even if a famous brand looks like something fresh and unpredictable. This Is the reason of the hype imo.

 

The Batman was an "yet another" Batman movie ( 3 different actors in like 15 years) so It can be understandable at some point there Is not the kind of broad audience Tim Burton reached with his version. 

Also rated R. 

 

 

Edited July 15, 2023 by vale9001

[Ryan Reynolds]

10 minutes ago, redfirebird2008 said:

 

And Google says 85-90% of females have owned a Barbie doll. That's an insane number. I feel very confident that a much, much lower percentage of males is interested enough in Batman to own a Batman comic or toy. 

Jesus, the biggest IP can't get 200m OW

 

15 minutes ago, redfirebird2008 said:

 

Google says 85-90% of females have owned a Barbie doll in their lives. That's insane. That is far bigger built-in audience than any of the superhero stuff that people might bring up. Even Spider-Man (bigger than Batman) does not have that type of brand saturation with boys and men.

 

These days everything at the box office is all about franchises and brand recognition. It's why Disney went on a rampage buying out everyone with established popular brands (PIXAR, Marvel, Lucasfilm). My cousin was big into Barbie dolls when she was a kid. Guessing she and others her age will be going to this movie, perhaps multiple times. 

why can't Jesus, the biggest IP get 200m OW?

[redfirebird2008]

2 minutes ago, Ryan Reynolds said:

Jesus, the biggest IP can't get 200m OW

 

why can't Jesus, the biggest IP get 200m OW?

 

Probably because a lot of people don't trust the movie industry to handle religious subjects in the right way. That said, Passion of the Christ from 2004 adjusts with inflation to $550 million in the domestic market. The Ten Commandments from 1956 is over $1.1 billion in the domestic market after inflation. 

[Krissykins]

3 hours ago, redfirebird2008 said:

Why would it be jawdropping? There’s a massive built-in audience. 

Hmm some people are getting revisionist again. 
 

No one was predicting an opening of this size when the film was announced. There are very few female targeted movies at this level. I don’t think people should be downplaying it already. Opening over $100m would be incredible for this film. 
 

I’ve already seen some on twitter starting the Oppenheimer excuses early: “3 hour R rated biopic”. Eh, it’s still from Christopher Nolan shot in IMAX with a prime summer blockbuster release date and a star studded cast. 

[JustLurking]

6 minutes ago, Krissykins said:

Hmm some people are getting revisionist again. 
 

No one was predicting an opening of this size when the film was announced. There are very few female targeted movies at this level. I don’t think people should be downplaying it already. Opening over $100m would be incredible for this film. 
 

I’ve already seen some on twitter starting the Oppenheimer excuses early: “3 hour R rated biopic”. Eh, it’s still from Christopher Nolan shot in IMAX with a prime summer blockbuster release date and a star studded cast. 

Oppenheimer is still doing really well, just because Barbie is going completely insane doesn't change that.

 

But yeah...I don't think this was expected at all lmao. Barbies are just dolls, there was never a guarantee people would give a damn about a Barbie film, the batman comparison is misguided because those are still fans of the worlds, characters and stories. Also, just because girls owned Barbies doesn't mean much...a lot of those were just dolls their parents or family members gifted them.

 

Case in point basically no one was predicting this giant opening before presales went up. If this film was such an easy slam dunk it would've happened ages ago.

 

It wasn't an easy sell.

Edited July 15, 2023 by JustLurking

[Bobzaruni]

9 minutes ago, Krissykins said:

Hmm some people are getting revisionist again. 
 

No one was predicting an opening of this size when the film was announced. There are very few female targeted movies at this level. I don’t think people should be downplaying it already. Opening over $100m would be incredible for this film. 
 

I’ve already seen some on twitter starting the Oppenheimer excuses early: “3 hour R rated biopic”. Eh, it’s still from Christopher Nolan shot in IMAX with a prime summer blockbuster release date and a star studded cast. 

I agree but the point about Oppenheimer is right, people who thought it would win in the first place were insane but it could be Nolan's biggest opening outside the Dark Knight trilogy while being his first R-rated film in 2 decades.

[Redolent]

 

13 minutes ago, Krissykins said:

Hmm some people are getting revisionist again. 
 

No one was predicting an opening of this size when the film was announced. There are very few female targeted movies at this level. I don’t think people should be downplaying it already. Opening over $100m would be incredible for this film. 
 

I’ve already seen some on twitter starting the Oppenheimer excuses early: “3 hour R rated biopic”. Eh, it’s still from Christopher Nolan shot in IMAX with a prime summer blockbuster release date and a star studded cast. 

lol what Nolan excuses? Outside of the Batman trilogy his largest opening is Inception with $63. He’s not known for big openings at all. An opening on par with Dunkirk ($50.5) would have been considered fantastic.

 

You can celebrate Barbie without getting all petty and oppositionist, you know.

Edited July 15, 2023 by Redolent

[Krissykins]

Just now, Redolent said:

What Nolan excuses? 

lol what Nolan excuses? Outside of the Batman trilogy his largest opening is Inception with $63. He’s not known for big openings at all. An opening on par with Dunkirk ($50.5) would have been considered fantastic.

 

You can celebrate Barbie without getting all petty and oppositionist, you know.

I’m sure Oppenheimer will do fine. I’ve just noticed on twitter a lot of replies to big tweets are “it’s a 3 hour R rated drama”. Leaving out the fact that it’s Nolan. 
 

I’m not making excuses, just pointing out that some people on twitter are. Maybe they personally assumed Oppenheimer would always win. 

[Krissykins]

On another note: Barbie already has 4 sell outs on Friday at my local, the 6pm, 7pm, 7.40pm and 8.40pm 

[WorkingonaName]

3 minutes ago, Krissykins said:

On another note: Barbie already has 4 sell outs on Friday at my local, the 6pm, 7pm, 7.40pm and 8.40pm 

All opening night showings at my theatre are sold out. 

[vale9001]

50-60 M for Nolan if happening would be absolutely great.

 

 

Edited July 15, 2023 by vale9001

[JustLurking]

33 minutes ago, Krissykins said:

I’m sure Oppenheimer will do fine. I’ve just noticed on twitter a lot of replies to big tweets are “it’s a 3 hour R rated drama”. Leaving out the fact that it’s Nolan. 
 

I’m not making excuses, just pointing out that some people on twitter are. Maybe they personally assumed Oppenheimer would always win. 

Oppenheimer is pretty much tracking along (if not higher than?) the biggest non-bats Nolan openings. Realistically I think Oppy is doing about as much as anyone could want, but there's no way this sort of film can put up the numbers Barbie is doing

 

Give it to another director and I'm not sure it even cracks 30M OW...granted it obviously benefits from the barbenheimer phenomenom, but even then...if it was a director without Nolan's following I'm not sure this thing would've even started, Oppenheimer would've just been that biopic that got drowned by Barbie

Edited July 15, 2023 by JustLurking

[Krissykins]

17 minutes ago, JustLurking said:

Oppenheimer is pretty much tracking along (if not higher than?) the biggest non-bats Nolan openings. Realistically I think Oppy is doing about as much as anyone could want, but there's no way this sort of film can put up the numbers Barbie is doing

 

Give it to another director and I'm not sure it even cracks 30M OW...granted it obviously benefits from the barbenheimer phenomenom, but even then...if it was a director without Nolan's following I'm not sure this thing would've even started, Oppenheimer would've just been that biopic that got drowned by Barbie

Yeh if any other director they wouldn’t have given it a $100m+ budget or IMAX exclusive either. 
 

I think Oppenheimer will still do well. 

[vale9001]

19 minutes ago, JustLurking said:

Oppenheimer is pretty much tracking along (if not higher than?) the biggest non-bats Nolan openings. Realistically I think Oppy is doing about as much as anyone could want, but there's no way this sort of film can put up the numbers Barbie is doing

 

Give it to another director and I'm not sure it even cracks 30M OW...granted it obviously benefits from the barbenheimer phenomenom, but even then...if it was a director without Nolan's following I'm not sure this thing would've even started, Oppenheimer would've just been that biopic that got drowned by Barbie

 

 

seeing what pure drama movies have made post pandemic i would say 20M.....on christmas week 😅

Edited July 15, 2023 by vale9001

[Brainbug]

Im happy this comes out in July and not June.

[Ipickthiswhiterose]

5 hours ago, redfirebird2008 said:

 

Google says 85-90% of females have owned a Barbie doll in their lives. That's insane. That is far bigger built-in audience than any of the superhero stuff that people might bring up. Even Spider-Man (bigger than Batman) does not have that type of brand saturation with boys and men.

 

 

This is what people took so long to get their heads round. I still think some people haven't gotten this.

 

And add in the fact that not only have THEY owned their Barbie dolls, but that they have watched their family members do so as well.

 

The first trailer was low key genius I think. From the off they positioned the femininity of Barbie as being inherently progressive (or at least potentially so) with that 2001 trailer: Whatever there is to say about feminine beauty standards, the shift from girls' toys being an avatar for motherhood from day one (baby dolls) to girls' toys instead being an aspirational figure is an immense culturally powerful movement.

 

Going with a group of 14 next Saturday. Maybe 2 of them go to the cinema semi-regularly, the rest never go. Some of them are dressing up. Serious cultural penetration.

 

 

 

 

[Ipickthiswhiterose]

3 hours ago, Krissykins said:

Hmm some people are getting revisionist again. 
 

No one was predicting an opening of this size when the film was announced. There are very few female targeted movies at this level. I don’t think people should be downplaying it already. Opening over $100m would be incredible for this film. 

 

 

There were plenty of female targeted movies for a while in the Twilight/Hunger Games era. Producers accepted that the YA genre was a trend.

 

This is a manifestation of the ultra-low-risk perspective of Hollywood studios IMO.

 

Similar to Joker cracking a billion. Is it a surprise to a degree? Yes. But it's as much a surprise that nobody's done it before because nobody had the guts to green light it.

 

The Joker had been at the centre of just as much, in fact technically more, box office success than Batman. Of course centering him in a movie, even a lower budget one, had lots of potential.

 

Barbie has insane levels of cultural penetration, even if it hasn't been tested in the cauldron of the movie business. Of course centring her in a movie had massive breakout potential. Especially given the BO success of another toy in Transformers - that didn't even have the same level of cultural penetration - two decades ago.

 

It's the internalisation of the Hollywood low risk mindset that prevented folk from seeing how big those movies could be. And the fact that they needed to nail the marketing and execution, which is all stuff that's easier said than done.

Edited July 15, 2023 by Ipickthiswhiterose

[vale9001]

if you watch the new york times best seller charts of the last couple of years you can see the incredible boom the genre of rom com books. Like for romantic thrillers from writers like Colleen Hooper and Taylor Jenkins Reid.

 

All these books have millions readers...are easy way to make 20M budget movies can make 200M WW. A way to not risk too much making low budget movies and to launch new stars too. 

Sadly it's all going to netflix and similar.

 

The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo has the appeal of fault of our stars and could have made 300-400M WW (it's going on netflix), the lgbqt mega besteller Red, White and Royal blue is coming on Prime video. All the books by Emily Henry are becoming not movies but miniseries (with no reason cause they are perfect for a 2 hours rom com).

 

 

Barbie success could be important for all the industry for this reason: the executives should realise all these products on tik tok already have massive fanbases, not smaller than most super heroes fanbases. And making this movies would cost 1/10 of the average super hero movie.

 

We are at the point we have 150M movies about super heroes 18 persons know (honestly the blue beetle, really?) and these adaptations with already enormous fanbases are made for netflix. I really don't understand.