When Margot Robbie first read the script for the Barbie film, which she stars in and co-produced, her first thought was: “They’re never going to let us make this movie.”
Mattel, the doll’s manufacturer, had jealously guarded her image for more than 60 years. It would never agree to a movie that not only riffed on Barbie’s sometimes controversial history, but included among its comic characters none other than a “weird and insensitive” CEO of Mattel. Right?
The answer to that question is opening in cinemas in three weeks’ time – in what the company’s (real-life) CEO has said he hopes will be the beginning of a new franchise of Barbie movies – and an unstoppable wave of lucrative commercial opportunities.
Cinephiles may be intrigued by the pairing of arthouse favourite Greta Gerwig (who co-wrote and directed the movie) with the ubiquitous plastic doll, but for her makers this is an unmissable opportunity to break Brand Barbie out of toyland – and paint all kinds of other products bubblegum pink.
Mattel has signed licensing deals with more than 100 brands, it said this week, meaning that this summer as well as dressing in Barbie apparel from Gap, Primark or Forever 21, wearing her shoes from Aldo or inline skates from Skatehut and sporting her makeup (NYX Cosmetics and others), you can also relax on a Barbie x Funboy pool float while enjoying Pinkberry’s Barbie-branded frozen yoghurt.
Entertaining? Why not serve your drinks in Barbie x Dragon glassware, scented by themed Homesick candles – but take care not to spill anything on your Barbie x Ruggable rug. Afterwards, you can book an Airbnb break, pack your luggage, play on your pink Xbox and then brush your teeth using “the pinkest oral beauty collection ever”. There are many, many others.
Barbie is the bestselling doll in the UK – last year six dolls were sold every minute – “and that’s before the movie even comes out”, said Melissa Symonds, executive director for UK toys at the consumer analyst Circana. Almost a third of toy sales, she said, are already licensed from films or other media – think Harry Potter, Star Wars and Minecraft.
Although many toy brands hope to extend their name into other sectors, not all succeed. What’s notable about this occasion, Symonds said, is the extent to which those behind Barbie “haven’t just gone down one supermarket aisle”.
Gary Pope of specialist marketing agency Kids Industries added: “Barbie was in an interesting place before it began, because it’s probably the biggest girls’ brand on the planet, and the only brand that really truly owns a colour as well.
“So before they’ve even got out of the traps, they’ve got a fantastic place to play.”
Licensed merchandise has always been important to big movie events, said Ben Roberts of the industry magazine License Global, but we are long past the days when just slapping a Batman logo on a lunchbox would do. “It’s a lot more holistic than that,” Roberts said. “Licensed products are not just linked to a movie, they are part of a brand’s lifecycle.
Mattel, he said, was careful to create “multigenerational touch points” in its licensing, “so that no matter where you are in life, you can engage with the brand in that way”. It’s become particularly central as generations Y and Z – absolutely steeped in diverse media as they grew up – have matured to become kidult fans with purchasing power, he said. “Fandom has become such a large part of our culture now. And fandom is the biggest driver for licensing.”
From the studio’s point of view, too, merchandising is increasingly important in guaranteeing overall profitability, said , director of theatrical insights at film analytics specialist Gower Street. That’s particularly important on megabudget action blockbusters, but also on less predictable movies which may defy easy categorisation – including Barbie, he said.
Expectations were initially modest for the movie, as no one quite knew what it would be, said Mitchell. “This is a film about a toy, essentially, but it is being made by some arthouse film-makers.” But as snippets of the movie have built buzz – and the coincidence of its launch on the same day as Christopher Nolan’s atomic bomb drama Oppenheimer has led to a rush of viral memes comparing them – industry hopes are rising for Barbie, he says.
“Warner Bros and their partners are doing everything they can to make Barbie stand out. And it’s working … it has a very good chance of being the breakout film of the summer.”
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The birth of Barbie
She’s been beloved by generations of children, and decried by feminists for promoting an unhealthy body image, but 64 years after she was launched by Mattel, Barbie is still going strong – all the more astonishing given the revolution in women and girls’ lives since.
But Barbie’s surprising origins go back even further still – and are a lot saucier than many parents of young girls realise.
The first Barbie doll, dressed in a black and white striped swimsuit and heels, was launched by Mattel in the US on 9 March 1959. In that first year, 300,000 dolls were sold.
Though recognisably the same doll as today, her vampish looks (catlike, heavily lidded eyes, archly raised eyebrows) were directly taken from Bild Lilli, the German doll who was herself the spin-off of a racy comic strip in the tabloid Bild.
Lilli, in the cartoon version, was a highly sexed seductress and gold digger with a large bosom and quick wit. She was such a hit that the newspaper licensed toymaker O&M Hausser to make a doll, sold from 1955.
Her big moment came when Ruth Handler, who had founded Mattel with her husband, came across the doll on a trip to Europe with her daughters and decided to make an American version named after her daughter Barbara (Ken, who followed in 1961, is named after the Handlers’ son, which perhaps helps explain the dolls’ curiously chaste romance). Mattel acquired the rights for Bild Lilli in 1964.
There have been some changes to the doll in six decades. Barbie first got an African American friend, Christie, in 1968, although it wasn’t until 1980 that the first black Barbie proper was produced. In 2016 the company introduced a range of bodyshapes including tall, petite and “curvy” Barbie – although the last, while looking notably more realistic, has been estimated to equate to a UK size 6-8 waist.
According to Mattel, Barbie has had more than 200 careers. Notably, however, she has never been a mother.
