Simply when all that pre-release Barbie buzz was beginning to make scorching pink really feel monotonous, the film opened—and delivered that sought-after mix of vital reward, audiences of each lovers and haters (which introduced even extra buzz), and huge field workplace success. Mattel executives won’t have fairly understood director Greta Gerwig’s purpose forward of time, however they 100% perceive greenback indicators.
Inevitably, when a film’s an enormous hit, sequel speak occurs; sometimes, even earlier than the film’s an enormous hit, these in cost permit themselves to dream massive. Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz places it plainly, talking to Selection: “On the outset, we’re not saying, ‘Okay, let’s suppose already about film two and three.’ Let’s get the primary one proper and make {that a} success. And if you happen to try this, alternatives open up in a short time, as soon as you identify the primary film as a profitable illustration of a franchise on the large display screen … Profitable motion pictures lend themselves to extra motion pictures. Our ambition is to create movie franchises.”
We already know that Mattel has a number of different toy traces in thoughts for future variations (right here’s a latest listing of 14, together with Barney and the Magic 8 Ball, which can be within the queue), however you’ll be able to’t actually blame its executives for hoping to recapture extra Barbie magic. “Barbie, as a model, has many various iterations … in addition to the principle Barbie determine, she has household, she has lots of parts round in her universe,” Kreiz instructed the commerce.
The Barbie film explored a few of that, however there are actually extra tales in that universe that could possibly be instructed. Or are there? Talking to the New York Occasions, director and co-writer Gerwig—whose distinctive imaginative and prescient was a driving drive behind the film, in addition to her collaboration with star Margot Robbie—stated, “At this second, it’s all I’ve obtained. I really feel like that on the finish of each film, like I’ll by no means have one other concept and all the things I’ve ever wished to do, I did. I wouldn’t need to squash anyone else’s dream however for me, at this second, I’m at completely zero.”
Head to the New York Occasions to learn the complete interview, which incorporates Gerwig’s response to the film’s success in addition to its doll-torching right-wing detractors. Barbie is in theaters now.
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