After Barbie rocketed past a billion dollars at the box office in the space of 17 days to establish itself as having lived up to the pre-release hype and then some, you could almost hear a lightbulb going off in the heads of studio executives all across Hollywood.
Having crafted an all-aged crowd-pleaser that appealed to women arguably more so than men – with the former typically being under-served when it comes to big budget blockbusters – Greta Gerwig struck gold with an acclaimed, star-studded caper that sent audiences home happy and drummed up massive repeat business.
Naturally, then, there’s a suspicious influx in toy movies plowing forward through active development, indicating that Hollywood has once again fundamentally and perhaps fatally misunderstood the entire driving force behind Barbie’s box office domination, with one unnamed exec hitting the nail on the head while speaking to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Maybe Hollywood is smart enough, which is the funniest start to a sentence, ever. But if anyone is watching Barbie and saying, ‘You know why this movie worked? It’s because of a toy’ you are taking away the wrong lesson.”
Obviously, you’ve got to reason that Hollywood is not smart enough based on nothing more than history, facts, and evidence, because the likes of J.J. Abrams’ Hot Wheels and the terrifying Monopoly adaptation that continues threatening to escape development hell are almost certainly not going to draw any other inspiration from Barbie other than their toyetic origins, which is as boneheaded as it is unsurprising.
Published: Aug 10, 2023 10:43 am