As 'Barbie' hits streaming services today, 2023 is not done with the Barbenheimer phenomenon just yet...
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The Barbie – Oppenheimer double-feature was all anyone could talk about this summer, with both record-breaking films from Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan opening on the same day and leading to countless #Barbenheimer hashtags, memes and mash-up posters online.
Now, it’s been reported that American film studio Full Moon Features, the minds behind B-movies, low-budget horror parodies, and direct-to-video gems like Puppet Master, The Dead Hate The Living! and Evil Bong, is in pre-production on a Barbenheimer movie.
Titled BARBENHEIMER!, the film will take the marketing insanity one step further by actually merging both properties to make a full feature.
While not much is known about the film (aside from Full Moon founder Charles Band producing), there is a synopsis:
"Deep within Dollsville, a group of fed-up female dolls – led by the brilliant Dr. Barbenheimer – build an atomic bomb. Their mission? To bring down the patriarchy once and for all! But as the battle of the sexes swells, will Barbenheimer and her bevy of beauties end up blowing up more than they bargained for?"
The studio has begun teasing the film with a poster, and an additional comment saying that BARBENHEIMER! will mix "comedy, drama, action and Armageddon".
BARBENHEIMER! is aiming for a Christmas 2023 release on Amazon’s Prime Video and Full Moon’s own streaming service, FullMoonFeatures.com.
Not that they’re the first who have imagined what the mash-up could look like, mind you... There are plenty of fake trailers online, including this particularly haunting one from @curiousrefuge, who previously mocked up trailers using AI for Wes Anderson’s versions of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Avatar.
Check out Curious Refuge’s Barbenheimer trailer:
Kudos on the pink atom bomb and the “bright pink glow of a new era”.
Less props on making Margot Robbie look like anything but Margot Robbie, transforming Ryan Gosling into Tom Felton if he had been in a particularly nasty elevator accident, and mistaking Will Ferrell for a botoxed Josh Brolin.
The less said about that soul-sucking wink Barbie gives at the 1 minute mark, the better. We may never sleep again.
Let’s hope that the Full Moon version will offer less nightmare fuel.
The studio’s move, as madcap as it sounds, makes a lot of sense: Full Moon are cashing in on the Barbenheimer cultural phenomenon and the audience appetite for both films.
Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has become the highest-grossing film of the year, crossing the $1.4 billion mark at the global box office and currently holding the 14th spot at the all-time worldwide box-office as the 51st film to have ever crossed $1bn. As for Oppenheimer, it is in third place this year with worldwide earnings of $890 million, just behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($1.3 billion) and ahead of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ($845 million) and Fast X ($704 million).
Additionally, it was announced that Mattel expects Barbie to contribute over $125 million (€116.5 million) in gross billings to the company this year.
This number was shared during the Goldman Sachs media conference last week by Anthony DiSilvestro, the chief financial officer at Mattel.
ADVERTISEMENT“What you saw around the Barbie movie was, we believe, a template, a case study, an opportunity to truly understand the value and appeal that our brands have, the cultural resonance, and, importantly, our ability to execute these projects both creatively and commercially,” said Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz. “We hope and expect to have more. I’m not saying it will be as big or as successful as Barbie, but it will be the same approach.”
According to The New York Times, Mattel earned five per cent of the film’s box office revenue, as well as a portion of the overall profits as a producer on the movie, and additional payments as owner of the Barbie IP.
As a result of the film’s success, Mattel is planning a slew of movie projects based on the company’s IP, including a Hot Wheels film from J.J. Abrams, Polly Pocket by Lena Dunham, and Barney starring Daniel Kaluuya.
Barbie hits streaming services today, Tuesday 12 September. BARBENHEIMER! should be with us by the end of the year.
