The Big Picture
- Barbie's new movie has made record-breaking box office earnings, crossing the $500 million mark and becoming a pop culture event.
- The success of the movie has led to increased interest in the series Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse, which has entered Netflix's Top 10.
- With its emotional depth and nuanced themes, the Barbie movie has resonated with both kids and adults, leading to plans for a sequel and the exploration of other toy properties on the big screen.
Barbie has made a historic amount of money at the global box office in its first five days of release. The film is about to cross the $500 million mark at the box office and, thanks to rave reviews, it has become a pop culture event film. So many moviegoers have expressed their Barbie love online, but apparently the dreamhouse party didn’t stop when people left the theater. Due to Barbie-Mania, the animated series Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse has entered Netflix’s Top 10.
The series, which debuted in 2012, ran for eight seasons and 83 episodes. Like the early parts of the Barbie movie, each episode followed Barbie, Ken, and their Barbieland friends as they lived their best pink-filled lives around the famous dreamhouse. While this was a Netflix series aimed at the brand’s actual target audience…kids, that hasn’t stopped adults everywhere from expressing their massive amount of Kenergy toward the show. These results may mean it’s time for another Barbie series. It would definitely at least make the wait for a Barbie 2 or Ken spin-off film a little earlier.
Barbie Was an Emotional Event Film
The reason why the Barbie movie worked so well, besides the fact that Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie, and Ryan Gosling are national treasures, is that this was a surprisingly emotional coming-of-age love letter. Not just for Barbie and the countless women that played with her, but for Ken and all the men who wanted to join in on all the Barbie fun. This was a rich satire that, through its endlessly fun comedic style and impactful heart, tackled themes of feminism, masculinity, and toxic human nature in a very nuanced way. It has all the bright colors and fun you want from a Barbie adventure with all the mature weight that comes from an Oscars-winning Gerwig production. That may mean it’s a bit at odds with Barbie’s original younger target audience, but this is still a worthwhile film for the whole family despite some of its more risky jokes. It’s the rare feel good film that makes you feel like you learned a lot walking out of the theater. Not just about your own confusing life, but about the people and world around you. That’s the brilliance of Barbie and that’s hopefully why Mattel is already planning a sequel, along with bringing some of their other massive toy properties to life on the big screen. It’s also why audiences want to explore more of Barbie’s over 60 years of history.
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Can Barbie Join the Billion Dollar Club?
If Barbie keeps its historic pace up, there’s a great shot it can join the coveted billion dollar club. After a massive $162 million opening weekend, the film became Warner Brother's biggest Monday moneymaker in its history grossing $26 million. That was good enough to beat The Dark Knight. If that wasn’t enough success Barbie made history again this past Tuesday becoming WB’s highest grossing film on that day since Aquaman’s Christmas Day holiday gambit. It’s Barbie’s world, and we just have the privilege of living in it. You can stream Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse on Netflix now before heading out to theater to rewatch Barbie's live-action triumph,
