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- "Barbie" is finally landing in theaters and the hype could not be any bigger.
- It's partly due to a marketing campaign that proved increasingly elaborate — and expensive.
- But if predictions about ticket sales this weekend are accurate, it could all be worth it.
Finally, after what feels like forever, "Barbie" has landed.
The movie was announced 14 years ago and has been in development for nine, but that's not why the run-up has felt interminable. In recent months, it's been everywhere from Vogue to memes, via pink burgers, pasta, and shakes.
And then there was the official marketing campaign, which includes a website dedicated to letting you make a "Barbie" poster with your own photo and customized tagline, and a press tour where the actors seem to sort of stay in character the whole time.
Not to mention a bunch of partnerships that involved taking over people's TV home-screens, and perhaps most famously, creating a real-life Barbie Dreamhouse in Malibu.
Warner Bros hasn't officially told us how much this all cost, but it must be a lot. The rumor is $100 million. This appears to have originated from advertising data outlet Media Radar, which threw out the number, although it actually said Mattel spent less than $100 million — which could be anything really.
Still, $100 million feels about right, especially compared to what other movies spend. It's a huge amount, but it may all be worth it.
As "Barbie" hits the screen, the hype could not be bigger.
It's been boosted by the unexpected showdown between the pink, sparkly, sunshine Barbie movie, and the other blockbuster opening the same day — about the guy who invented the atomic bomb.
But a lot of it does come down to the advertising, which has gotten viewers totally pumped about going to Barbieland, even if they don't quite know what it is or what they're about to see.
Variety reports that on its opening weekend, "Barbie" is expected to take between $95 million and $110 million from ticket sales in North America alone, which would match what we assume was spent on marketing.
Of course studios have to make back the cost of actually producing the movie ($145 million, apparently), as well as their marketing spend, before they make a profit (and a big slice of the box office goes to theaters, too).
But if "Barbie" can get that many people through the door on its opening weekend, the huge advertising push has definitely done something right.