Barbie Tracking for Dazzling Opening Weekend in Oppenheimer Matchup

By Aaron Perine

Barbie is tracking for a dazzling opening weekend in its big debut with Oppenheimer. Online, much has been made about the contrast between the two movies that release on the weekend of July 21. But, Barbie is forecasted to bring in $70-$80 million. That's pretty great for the Greta Gerwig's big pink pop culture moment. Oppenheimer is tracking for about $40 million. A pretty great result in its own regard for an R-rated movie with a 3-hr runtime. It makes a lot of sense that the projections would be lower than a Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie.

Still, as the theater industry still tries to get off of the mat that still lingers as the pandemic rolls on. There have been bright spots along the last couple of years. Avatar: The Way of Water, Top Gun: Maverick, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and more have shown that they can hack it out there. But, the mass-moviegoing that studios and exhibitors enjoyed in 2019 looks to be gone. With money tighter than ever in a lot of households and rising costs all around, it's hard to justify heading to the theater 8 times a year anymore. But, maybe Barbie, Oppenheimer and Mission Impossible 7 will provide a watershed moment? 

Why Has Barbie Caught On So Well?

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(Photo: Architectural Digest)

In a word, marketing. Mattel, Warner Bros. and the creative teams of their partners have spared no expense to make sure people are aware of this movie. While promoting a project with a strong marketing offensive isn't necessarily a cheat code. (Looking gingerly over at The Flash…) It's absolutely a good part of the secret sauce that goes into big box office success. So, in an era where studios are spending less and less on marketing personnel and general buzz, Barbie is showing that knowing the audience and playing to them absolutely matters.

To wit, Robbie told TIME that she begged her director to have Aqua's "Barbie Girl" in the film in some capacity. "I was like, 'Greta, how are we going to incorporate this song? We can't do a Barbie movie and not have a nod to Aqua's 'Barbie Girl.' It has to be in there.' And [Greta] was like, 'Don't worry, we're going to find a cool way to incorporate it,'" Robbie began.

She added, "And then, when she was like, 'Guess who's going to do the remix of Aqua's "Barbie Girl"? Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice.' I was like, 'Together? Are you joking?!' I just knew immediately that all my girlfriends were going to lose their minds." 

What Is The Barbie Movie Trying to Say?

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(Photo:

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- Warner Bros. Pictures)

Barbie is one of those projects where the movie simultaneously reinforces everything the fans love about a brand while interrogating it a bit. Gerwig made sure to get "This Movie Is For You If You Love Barbie"  into the trailer alongside, "This Movie Is For You Is You Hate Barbie." So, the creative team is clearly trying to get at what the idea of an "ideal girl" would mean in 2023. During an interview with British Vogue, Jacqueline Durran talked about designing costumes and Gerwig's reading of Barbie as a whole.

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"I never thought of Barbie as having a feminist aspect – because of the body shape, you tend to think that she's anti-feminist," Durran explained. "Before I started working on the film, I hadn't realised Greta's point that Barbie was revolutionary because it was the first time that girls started playing with somebody who had agency and did things, rather than a baby."

Will you be seeing Barbie on opening night? Let us know in the comments!

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