Barbie is having a major resurgence at the moment with the incredible success of the Barbie movie, taking in $162 million in the US and a total of $337 million globally over its opening weekend – breaking a 15-year record held by the Batman sequel The Dark Knight.
With everyone wanting to ride the wave of success, more and more retailers are adding Barbie licensed merchandise to their collections, and Barbie cafe’s are popping up in cities across the country.
Barbie’s Comeback
It was just seven years ago that criticism for Barbie was at its peak, a study conducted in 2016 showed that unrealistically proportioned Barbie dolls negatively affected the body image of six to eight year-old girls. It found that girls between this age group who played with Barbies had more complaints about their own bodies compared to girls who played with dolls that had more realistic body proportions. Barbie was heavily criticized for not being inclusive and setting poor standards for girls.
A lot has changed in these past seven years with Mattel creating Barbies with three new body types – curvy, tall and petite, as well as more diversity in skin tones, eye colors, hairstyles, and a Barbie in a wheelchair.
The company also released other dolls such as My First Barbie, which was designed with easier to move limbs and larger accessories, for kids as young as three years old. Clearly the changes Mattel made had an impact – fast-forward to today, Barbie’s director Greta Gerwig has broken the record for any female director in history, beating out Patty Jenkins’ $103 million debut for Wonder Woman.
“Greta Gerwig’s box office success is not just monumental for her but for all female directors and writers – we have been begging for the gates to be open and to be given the opportunities to tell our stories, through our lens – but the belief has been if you have not done it before we don’t trust you. However, as a deeply entrenched system that prioritizes those who have done it before, it does not allow the status quo, on big budget films, to change, and films remain predominantly directed and written by men. All we hope for is gender parity and Barbie and Greta prove – so do our audiences,” says Rogue Rubin, Director and Writer, most recently known for her expose documentary, Lion Spy, and films like Love In Bloom. She also founded the Women In Film and TV group on Facebook, which currently has over 20,000 members, and is a place to support, hire, and excel as a woman in the industry.
Retailers Jump On The Trend
A combination of nostalgia, fashion, a hit movie, and marketing at its finest has created the perfect retail storm – resulting in Barbie partnerships with many major brands, including Aldo, Hot Topic, Boohoo, Bloomingdale’s, Fossil, Cotton On, Gap, and Forever 21, just to name a few.
Alex and Ani, the jewelry company predominantly known for their charm bracelets, has released a beautiful Barbie collection, Primark has a 73-piece Barbie capsule collection that includes womenswear, menswear, pajamas, and accessories, Aldo’s Barbie collection is everything we dreamed of as a little girl, with clear sparkly pumps that look like you took them right off of your Barbie’s feet and onto yours, and handbags in different shades of pink. Burger King in Brazil even made a Barbie-themed bacon cheeseburger with a pink sauce – a clear sign that Barbie is everywhere.
Mattel’s official Barbie movie dolls collection inspired by cast members Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling can be found at Walmart, but are already sold out on Amazon and Mattel’s website.
Mattel also partnered up with Bucket Listers to launch pop-up cafés in New York City and Chicago, the Malibu Barbie Cafe has plenty of photo opportunities for the ‘Gram, and pink-themed everything – from cocktails to couches. The retro beach-vibe pop ups are ticketed and in high demand, for both adults and kids alike.
Clearly, 64-year-old Barbie – who will forever be 19 – is not showing any signs of slowing down – in fact, Barbie ranks as the nation’s number one toy property, according to NPD Group.
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