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Barbie Movie Streaming Release Date Teased By WB Head (& It Might Be A While)-TGN

Summary

  • The Barbie movie, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, will be streaming on Max in the Fall.

  • Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav emphasizes the importance of the traditional release window for movies, believing it builds the brand before transitioning to other platforms.

  • The Barbie movie had a successful opening weekend at the box office, earning $162 million domestically, making it the best opening weekend of the year so far.

Barbie is coming to streaming this year, but there will still be a long wait. The movie, which was directed and co-written by Greta Gerwig, follows the iconic doll Barbie (Margot Robbie) as she begins to experience a disconnect from her seemingly perfect life in Barbie Land and travels to the real world – with Ken (Ryan Gosling) tagging along – to find her owner. Barbie opened in theaters opposite Oppenheimer on July 21, landing the best opening weekend of the year so far with $162 million at the domestic box office.

Per TheWrap, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav recently discussed the Barbie movie during the company’s second-quarter earnings call. While he did not give an official date just yet, he revealed that Barbie will have a rather traditional release window, staying in theaters as long as possible before joining premium VOD and eventually streaming on Max “in the Fall.” Read his full quote below:

We really believe in the motion picture window. Let this movie go to the motion picture window, play it up, build up that brand, then have it go into PVOD. Take it through these windows of economics that have worked forever, and we think work extremely well. And then put it on Max. And when it goes on Max, we think it’ll have a very good impact and that’ll be in the Fall.

Why Barbie Isn’t Coming to Streaming Any Time Soon

It makes perfect sense that Warner Bros. Discovery would want to hold off on streaming Barbie for as long as possible. The movie has been a huge success in theaters, even when compared to pre-pandemic blockbusters. In fact, it has already risen to become the highest-grossing movie directed by a woman, surpassing Wonder Woman‘s total of $821.8 million.

There are many reasons for its success, including nostalgia for the Barbie brand that crosses generational lines. The Barbie cast also boasts a cavalcade of A-list talent that, in addition to Robbie and Gosling, includes Helen Mirren, Simu Liu, Will Ferrell, and many more. There is also the Barbenheimer effect in play, in which memes celebrating the simultaneous release of Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer caused many to pursue double features of the seemingly disparate movies.

All of these elements have combined to give Barbie a dazzling theatrical run. While the box office has yet to be tabulated for its impending third weekend, its second weekend grossed higher than all but six opening weekends of the year. With this kind of money rolling in for Warner Bros., it’s only natural that they would seek to push back the streaming release as much as possible and allow the movie time to organically grow as much as it can.

Source: TheWrap