Beating even the most optimistic numbers, the movie about the popular Mattel-brand doll managed to gross $162 million dollars (MDD) at the domestic box office —that is, the US and Canada— during its opening weekend. Now, after adding the accumulated in foreign markets, the box office total for its debut was $344 million, which makes it one of the 20 best global releases in history. And without a doubt, Barbie he wouldn’t have broken this or any other record if it weren’t for his extraordinary marketing campaign.
According The WrapWarner Bros. Discovery (WBD) CEO David Zaslav met with his team in January 2023 to discuss creating a comprehensive marketing campaign that would eventually be called “Operation Barbie Summer”. Its purpose? Ensuring that the movie starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling was the summer hit that we now know for sure it was meant to be.
“It’s been a company-wide initiative to show how special this film is,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. head of domestic distribution. “The result is a film that has brought the world together at a time of such division. It’s a pink unicorn.”
For his part, Michael De Luca, co-chairman of Warner Bros. Pictures, told The Wrap that in the initial meetings, it became clear that the company’s executives had absolute confidence in the feature film directed and co-written by Greta Gerwig.
“This is a film that has a lot to say about this famous doll and her legacy, as well as bringing out broader thoughts about the world, while never failing to be playful and funny every step of the way,” De Luca said. “Our goal was to show everyone that Barbie was more than just a movie with Barbie in the lead.”
Zaslav and his people’s plan was to use all WBD platforms for the promotion of Barbieincluding those that originally belonged only to Discovery, before its merger with Warner in April 2022. For example, the HGTV channel, which aired a miniseries titled Barbie Dreamhouse Challengeand Food Network, whose show Summer Baking Championship had a Barbie-themed episode. And at the same time, these and other Discovery channels advertised clips from the film and even displayed modified pink logos.
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The strategy also took advantage of Mattel’s alliance with countless other brands; a partnership that led to attractive marketing stunts. Among them, a limited edition Xbox console inspired by Barbie, a themed cruise and a Malibu mansion turned into a true Barbie Dream House.
This is how Josh Goldstine, president of marketing for Warner Bros., referred to that dream house from real life in an interview with Variety:
“It was a promotion that our team did in collaboration with Airbnb […] It was a ‘dream house’ in the Barbie sense, but it was also an amazing Malibu mansion given a crazy makeover.”
According to the executive, there were also brands that placed their products in the Barbie pink scheme of their own free will. And this, in Goldstine’s eyes, attested to how a simple marketing campaign could take on the tinge of a cultural movement; one that arose from a provocative teaser —parody of the cult tape 2001: A Space Odyssey— and which resulted in millions of people going to see Barbie with her best pink outfit. Not without first reinforcing the phenomenon on social networks «Barbenheimer»which undoubtedly helped not only the box office performance of the Warner film, but also that of the biopic oppenheimer from director Christopher Nolan, released the same day.
“We saw it as a breadcrumb strategy, where we gave people little elements of the movie [de Barbie] to stimulate curiosity and that created conversation,” he added. “In all campaigns there are elements of earned media [como el entusiasmo en redes sociales] and paid media [como la liberación del tráiler]. We believed that this brand had an opportunity to generate some very interesting earned media. Some of the decisions we made stimulated him. And then it took on a life of its own.”
And while rival studios speculate that Warner Bros. spent around $150 million just on the marketing campaign for BarbieJosh Goldstine chose not to share with Variety details of that budget.
“The reason people think we spend so much is that [la campaña] It is very ubiquitous,” he emphasized. “It’s a combination of paid media and how many partners came to play with us. Because it hit the zeitgeist, it sounds like we spend a lot. But in fact, we spend responsibly.”
Barbie It is currently exhibited in Mexican theaters.
Antonio G. Spindola I have very bad memory. Out of solidarity with my memories, I choose to lose myself too. Preferably in a movie theater.