‘Barbenheimer‘ was utterly surprising, however the studio behind Barbie gladly leaned in, stated Dana Nussbaum, EVP of worldwide advertising and marketing for Warner Bros. Footage, calling the weird double-feature frenzy one of some unforseen and welcome twists whereas rolling out the Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster.
“That was completely a shock to us. However one which we discovered extremely pleasant,” she stated throughout a Q&A at New York Promoting Week.
The Margot Robbie-starring romp and Oppenheimer, Common’s biopic about Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, couldn’t be extra totally different,” she stated. “That was a terrific instance of a shock. I might like to take credit score for that, by the best way, however [it was] completely, in no way architected by us. It’s one thing that occurred very organically, however one thing that we leaned into.”
“Once we noticed that this was on the market, and that there was dialog popping up round it, we made certain that Greta and Margo…went to see Oppenheimer. They took a photograph and it kind of kicked off this whole spirit, which was so unimaginable, as a result of on the outset, folks needed to pit the 2 movies in opposition to one another.”
Barbie has grossed greater than $1.4 billion worldwide ($635 million home). It premiered July 21 alongside Christopher Nolan’s movie, has seen a global field workplace of $942 million ($323 million home).
“What we realized is there’s room for each and like, what a tremendous celebration of tradition and moviegoing to have room for each and to kind of do this double function altogether,” stated Nussbaum.
The movie blanketed the world in pink and flooded social media in a masterful advertising and marketing marketing campaign that additionally adopted followers wherever they gathered, round a Barbie shoe problem by Chrissy Teigen, to Ryan Gosling’s balland ‘I’m Simply Ken’ — most lately parodied by Pete Davidson on SNL final weekend.
Barbie is now the very best grossing movie in Warner Bros.’ 100-year historical past, the very best grossing movie ever from a feminine filmmaker on the home field workplace, and the biggest worldwide movie launch of 2023. It takes Mattel’s iconic doll on a journey of feminine empowerment that’s integral to the story however, Nussbaum stated, not one thing the studio pressured.
“It was not misplaced on any of us that this was a very nice duty, but additionally an incredible alternative. However we have been very cautious to creating certain that we have been into the spirit of personalizing this marketing campaign that we have been letting audiences resolve how they interact with it. We by no means constructed it as a feminist story, we by no means got here out and stated any of that, as a result of we needed everyone to have their very own expertise in the identical approach that we have been all kind of delightfully stunned with the movie, after we first noticed it, we needed that discovery and that shock to be preserved for audiences and for audiences to have the ability to resolve what they have been responding to, and what was actually significant to them.”
When WB execs “first learn the script, it was actually clear that Greta had actually given us an absolute reward of this movie,” she stated, “and that there was one thing in it that, if we did it proper, we actually had the chance not solely to create a cultural second, however to vary issues in a significant approach. To actually simply change what it appears to be like wish to be a tentpole movie, and the way you recognize, feminine led movies come into the area, and who they’re for, and the way they carry out on the field workplace.”
