Why Jaws and Barbie were such blockbusters
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- Опубликовано: 3 окт 2024
- She’s Barbie. He’s just Jaws.
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The summer of 2023 was the summer of Barbie. Everywhere you looked there was marketing - posters, ads, trailers. There were Barbie cafe’s, Barbie progressive commercials, everyone was wearing pink! It was a delightful wave of cinematic energy.
But it was also completely overwhelming. At times it felt inescapable.
Barbie’s marketing felt different. And in some ways it was - but it owes a lot to the blockbusters that came before.
As promised, here are the links:
I started listening to this podcast to learn more about Jaws, and then I listened to every episode in like a week. Life-changingly good podcast if you’re into movies: open.spotify.c... or www.getblockbu...
Great deep dive into Mattel's strategy behind making a Barbie movie, and getting Greta Gerwig to direct: www.nytimes.co...
And to learn more, check out these awesome articles from other Vox authors:
Barbie review: Greta Gerwig’s movie uses a surprising Biblical metaphor - Vox: www.vox.com/cu...
Lessons from a Barbenheimer summer: www.vox.com/23...
A long history of kids doing weird stuff to Barbies: www.vox.com/cu...
Barbie movie marketing: The explosive success of the PR hype machine - Vox: www.vox.com/20...
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While quite annoying and overwhelming, the marketing strategy for Barbie has been the smartest and most impressive I have ever seen for any movie in terms of the payoff not only at the box office, but also further cementing the legacy of the brand through sheer ubiquity.
ubiquity ☠️
@@visceralseedIM DEAD 😂
And Dark Knight. They both had amazing marketing, which helped them both reach a billion
By duping conservatives
I wasn't too interested in Barbie, so I only saw a few trailers, but what I remember from the trailers seemed very different from the movie once I watched it with my kids. It seemed like the first movie in a long time where there were big parts of the plot and the third act not in any of the trailers.
Barbie definitely became more of an event than a movie. My girlfriend and I hardly ever go to the movies, but she had to see Barbie because all her students were talking about it and she felt the need to see it to get all their Barbie references. The fact that it's a charming movie with heart and doesn't simply do a tired "fish out of water" scenario (which is what I was expecting) is a huge bonus.
Tie in music also helped Barbie. This used to be really common for blockbusters, but less so these days.
Barbies sound track was so good I saw people calling it a faux musical!
There were some very musical numbers that definitely made it feel like a musical.
I'm Ken was 100% a musical number with dancing and everything.
I can’t believe they didn’t talk about it!!
That was another thing that helped Black Panther's success. They had Kendrick Lamar make the soundtrack for the film so it had a whole bunch of artistic credibility as far as superhero movies go. The Barbie team seems to have done the same.
@@luke_cohen1 omg 100% the soundtrack was so memorable
The Marketing team behind Barbie needs to give a Masterclass
Facts, only film I saw with that amount of hype in the 20s is spider man NWH. Phenomenal
the mktng was pretty average. What made Barbie a colossal hit was the internet with the spontaneous memes of barbieheimer. If there were no oppenheimer being released, barbie wouldn't have been so big; bc the whole point of the memes and curiosity was comparing so aesthetically and theme divergent movies.
Internet making Barbie somehow more political than Oppenheimer is hilarious
Oppenheimer looked amazing tho
Barbie is just mediocre garbage
Ikr like tf for it to be banned in muslim countries also lol😂😂😂
@@Lord_Submissive Algeria & Kuwait? Arab Muslim countries in general are kinda wack compared to saner Southeast Asian Muslim ones that know better and allow it in...
Oppenheimer another boring attempt from Nolan to get an Oscar that is going to fail AGAIN 🤣
@@chasehedges6775 nah. you're just bitter and jealous.
Barbie in the epitome of FOMO.
Barbenheimer was part of it, but it was social media that made people swarm movie theaters to ride the pink bandwagon.
Agreed. My girlfriend felt obligated to see it because all her students kept making Barbie references and she felt left out. I'm glad it was actually a good movie.
I don’t even have social media and I couldn’t escape it, that’s how powerful the marketing was. And yes, I did see both back to back.
Can we thank Barbie for making Oppenheimer a box office success?
I mean Oppenheimer and Barbie did help one another.
Oppenheimer would’ve been successful either way, it’s a Nolan movie. I was anticipating it long before I heard of barbie
More like the other way around but I see what you mean
@OscarUnrated it would have been successful without Barbie, but the Barbenheimer thing gave in a significant boost to make it more successful.
It was tracking 40-50 million for its opening weeknight, but it doubled that. I don't think it would have done that without Barbie.
It had Nolan's 3rd largest opening box office weekend, and the 2 higher were part of his Batman trilogy.
@@tiffanysandmeier4753Both would’ve been big, but together it definitely helped each other out.
Real
It didn't hurt that the manosphere and RWNJs made a huge deal about Barbie being a war on men and other silliness. That made a lot of people even more desperate to see it. I know it did for me.
If it gets the manosphere riled up, it's probably a good thing.
Any publicity is good publicity?
@@shadowgolem9158 kind of, but also the loudest voices were so far out of line with how most normal people see the world I heard a lot of people who said "if they hate it, it's probably amazing!" More like "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Robert Downey Jrs?
I mean... It was a bit anti-men. But that is def popular in the current climate 😆
Jaws and Barbie are like eye candies when put together. Both wildly different, but still manage to be successful at the box office. Maybe the ones that go into Jaws are hoping to snap their necks off while eating popcorn while the ones that go into Barbie are hoping to get their touchups ready and flying out the emergency exit doors.
Barbie is a ginourmous brand and everybody knows what Barbie is. Jaws was vanguardist as a blockbuster made by a unknown director.
I LOVE Gloria's speech in the Barbie movie.
the pink thing with the marketing is so true!! me and my friends werent stressed about matching or buying styuff because you can show up with a pink bracelet and still be in the 'event', my sister wore pink socks only she sees but she felt 'included'
and going in and actually getting a good movie made it so much better!
How could you not mention how Ryan Gosling was the internet's main meme for months before and after the release which lead a lot of men to go watch the movie because of Ken.
Haven't seen it yet, but my daughter and wife had to for reason #1: Heritage. They played with Barbie. The massive marketing guaranteed that they couldn't get away with not seeing it.
I think another smart thing was to make it PG-13. The only reason I saw it was because of that rating
please explain to a european not familiar with the system (I do partially know what the system is, but still dont understand your comment)
@@wolfgangbr1576 As an American I'm not sure what he means. Maybe if it was PG he would've thought it was boring but since it was PG-13 he knew it would have more adult elements which would make it more likely to be interesting
@@wolfgangbr1576 i believe they're saying that if it had a PG rating (typically saved for kids movies like paw patrol, frozen, boss baby, etc.), the studio would've had to sanitize the jokes and make it a lot more family-friendly/appropriate. since its PG13 (for folks 13yo and up, so stuff like marvel movies), they have more freedom to do more lewd or provocative jokes and such. theres more nuance to it but this is a baseline at least
As opposed to PG, or R?
@@amazinggrapes3045 Yeah, they had three cuts of the movie. PG, PG-13, and R
Trans rights! Protect trans kids! 🏳️⚧️💕
Edit: thanks for the likes! :)
Do you eat mermaids too? 🦀
youtube comments are the absolute worst
Great profile pic
as a doll who eats sharks i do too
I love that the Barbie movies will open the way for many more women centric movies that are fun for everyone!
I just hope that they're not limited to the label of "women-centric", it drives people away (I'm from India and ofc Bollywood's prevalent here and female-led films usually don't perform very well, although, there are many reasons for it apart from misogyny)
i dont think i would consider barbie as a 'fun'n movie
It isn't fun for everyone though is it? There are lots of people who didn't enjoy this movie.
I wouldn't give Barbie that label. It doesn't deserve it. It has been a while since I've seen it, and maybe I would enjoy it more the second time, but lots of people didn't enjoy it.
There are loads of woman-centric films, but a good portion of the modern ones aren't very good. There are some great ones, including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Tangled, Inside Out, Across the Spiderverse (Gwen and that other woman play a major role in the story although Miles is still the protagonist, so some people might not count it), and maybe Frozen depending on who you ask. (Also, I'm somewhat worried about that Spider-Woman movie, considering how the Spiderverse franchise correlates with the MCU. Into the Spiderverse is like Avengers: Assemble, Across the Spiderverse's first half is like Avengers: Infinity War, and the second half is like Captain America: Civil War. Where does that leave the other two?
Obviously Beyond the Spiderverse will be like Endgame (which is why I predict it will involve time travel), but what about Spider-Woman? That looks like it will either be like Captain Marvel or The Marvels. Captain Marvel is not a good film, and The Marvels probably won't be. Although, Phil Lord and Chris Miller are great at writing characters, so that should compensate for the bad plot, just like in The Mitchells Vs the Machines.)
But recently, there have been lots of awful woman-centric films, so it will take a lot for them to regain prominence. Films like Captain Marvel, Mulan (2019), Toy Story 4 (they made Woody a simp and portrayed Bo Peep as a Mary Sue, and as being in the right for abandoning her child (the exact opposite message of all the previous films).), and many others. Not to mention shows like She-Hulk.
That has got to be an oxymoron
"Men won't go see a movie starring a woman."
*Casts Margot Robbie*
Problem solved.
I saw Barbie two days in a row opening week 😂 I knew I was going to love it
Literally same
This was well edited. Great animations to tell this story.
The casting was also great. I kept saying to myself "Is that who I think it is?"
To the editor of the video: The intro, especially the sound effects, is super cool!
I know the fans and critics of Barbie saw it as "subversive and more intellectual than it first appears" but does someone want to explain that to the Mattel execs? They're greedily rubbing their palms together planning 14 other Mattel toy and product placement films which will no doubt find success at the theatres, but will most likely scrap the underlying messaging for soulless replications of the big blockbuster that Robbie, Baumbach and Gerwig lovingly crafted together. Although, I will say, the only one I'd be interested in seeing is the potential Wishbone reboot. Apparently Mattel has the rights to that 90s PBS show, and I think a film about a talking dog that uses classical literature to explore modern day situations and relationships would be just the ticket to get people of all ages reading novels again. IF! (and that's the biggest of ifs) they don't rip out the heart of the original show, and don't make it into some off-brand Air Bud action film with no moral at its center.
I confess I made my husband and daughters see it with me for my 60th birthday - just to spite all the outraged evangelicals & incels. We enjoyed it immensely. 😂😂😂
This is the first video which analysed Barbie's success that ACTUALLY mentioned Oppenheimer's role in the Barbenheimer trend bc many channels for some reason ignores Oppenheimer entirely as if it never had a role in both film's success or they acted if Oppenheimer didn't exist to begin with in that sense. It was an awesome time to be alive as a movie goer in 2023 and for me the first time going to theaters since Fast and Furious 9 in 2021 and before that Star Wars Ep. 9 in 2019. The amount of Tiktok edits combining both films as well as fan posters and art really drove home that this is a once-in-a-lifetime moment in history and everyone loves it! Even both film's actors/directors got in on the trend!
This is why I don't have cable, I never even knew this movie existed except for walking around NY looking at people in pink
I don't understand when they say movies marketed to women won't attract men. Why does that matter as long as that make money? Twilight and 50 shades of grey made buttloads of money.
I also feel like one reason people went back to see it is because it moves so fast, you almost have to watch it twice to process it.
I really enjoyed how Barbie took over summer!
Barbie & Oppenheimer saved the Box Office this year with Mario! Jaws paved the way for The Meg franchise!
Barbie was the first movie I went to see in theaters in about 4 years.
7:28 You're not alone. I also didn't pose inside that Barbie box 😆😆
What happened to "Go Woke, Go Broke?" 🤣
The fact that Barbie and Oppenheimer came out on the same day was not luck. It was an intentional move by Warner Bros. to get back at Christopher Nolan at leaving them after last-minute releasing Tenet on Paramount+. The two movies helped each other in the end though, and both are very good movies.
Greta Gerwig is the reason I watched Barbie.
She's going to direct a series of Narnia movies too!
Same. That was the signal that the movie was gonna be more than an IP pushing commercial product like Transformers
me tooo.... hehehe been a fan since Frances Ha.
same, literally i decided i was seieng it as sson as i heard she was wriitng/directing it
Same, good thing the Barbie was made from her instead of Amy Schemer. Yikes, that could've been awful
For a while in London it felt like every bus shelter had barbie ads on it. London has a lot of bus shelters.
Yeah they didn’t talk about the effect in London. In London the effect was huge and I’m sure the box office in London tells you that. I’ve heard people having to go to other cinemas cause barbie is fully packed, or even go another day. They need to drop lessons in international marketing
There weren't enough news clips establishing the Barbie movie's popularity at the start of this video.
I still haven't seen either Oppenheimer or Barbie. Never was a fan of that product. Still, *I think a significant part of the appeal is also the Pitch Perfect casting of Margot Robbie as Barbie.*
I wish I couldve seen barbie one more time before it left theaters, the vibe in the movie theater was immaculate
The opening cinematography of this video is so cool
I watched Barbie for the memes and ended up not watching Oppenheimer
ending of this video was so abrupt, i was expecting more as it ended
Because they are good movies! In Jaws case, and maybe Barbie one day, it's a classic film by a great filmmaker.
I enyoed Barbie so much more than Oppenheimer, thats whats most interesting to me.
And I study history.
"Jaws" came out when I was a young child, and I refused to take a bath for weeks because of the movie!
All I needed was the pictures of the Ken underwear to get me intrigued and Greta Gerwigs name tied to the project to know that I'd see it. These rest of the campaign went right over my head. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Epic mug at the end
I am fascinated by the choice of books on the shelf in the background for the talk head interview.
I definitely laughed at the self-aware fun that was poked at "film bros"
Oh, this video could have been so much longer. Also, omg, I watched Barbie 3 times... 2xs for exclusive merch and 1x in IMAX ❤
Hi, I’ve been a subscriber to Vox for a long time now and I want to say, as a film sis myself ahahaha, that I really appreciate this kind of videos and the fact that are accessibile to anybody makes them really special cause I can learn a lot from them. Since I’m really interested in this topic, I wanted to ask if you could cover a video where you explain why reality tv became such a cultural movement, and why, despite all the comments and the contradictions, we are still watching it. I was watching the Kardashians and this question popped in my mind :)
😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
We seen this kind of marketing strategy before with Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom Eternal, two vastly different video games that came out the same day. One is fun and colorful, the other is dark and brutal. The juxtaposition is enough to interest people.
Kind of how Mamma Mia and The Dark Knight came out on the same day. But this may be the biggest direct impact of two opposites helping each other yet.
I loved the Barbie movie, it was fun to be apart of. I saw it with my adult kids 2 daughters and 1 son, we all wore pink!
Then saw it again with my husband and my mom!💗
"Barbie superceded in the way that Black Panther superceded" yeah we hear you, the industry is finding a way to capitalize global majority groups. And welp it's working 😅 I loved it
I haven't watched barbie nor have been in the barbie booth 😂😂 but yeah everyone's been talking about barbie which means I'll watch it too.
Opening night for Barbenheimer was hilarious. I've only seen Oppenheimer so far, still need to see Barbie. But yeah, they're just two different movies for a certain taste or mood you're in haha
Thanks to social media today , it's easier than ever to hype a movie. People love being told what to like.
The day before the first day of summer can't be "squarely in the middle of summer"
What my thoughts were with the Barbie movie, is that it will stay there for a long time because it's there everywhere. Meaning that when this happens becoming really big, it is going to be there for a long.
3:48 Something's wrong with the US-Canada border... I think they gave Vancouver Island to the US
Never in a million years i ever thought barbie would become so political. Even more than Oppenheimer.
Thats because women asking for equal treatment and pointing out obvious sexism is apparently more problematic for some men then literal nuclear weapons.
@@angrynoodletwentyfive6463 im not saying its not more problematic it is def up there and sexism is a problem of both sexes in the barbie movie. But as a society to collectively counter those men with nuclear power people need to treat each-other with respect and trust. And sexism and old societal standards in this day and age wont let that.
greta gerwig really made something special with her take on modern womanhood. but half the worlds population is affected by misogyny, so of course its "more politcal" (whatever that really means) on the internet. only the USA is blind to their own evil-doing. old news for everyone else. Oppenheimer is a great film but not as political as a direct take on what being a woman in the 2020's looks like.
@@jennywithaglock3916 that’s absolutely true. I was talking about barbie as a whole. Like before the film. Like the time before the movie or in the 2010, 2000s, 1990s etc nobody would ever see this coming. Greta did an excellent job.
@@fattiesunite2288 15 years ago it could have been an interesting take. By now Barbie's audience wasn't only aware of its message, but strongly agreed with it before they entered the theatre. I'd much rather watch a film that's trying to challenge the viewer instead cashing on an important subject.
Nolan be like: why didn't I made Barbie instead!
Why, he makes fantastic thought provoking movies 🤷♂️
@@23sam42 l was just kidding man!
Ken sold the movie to me and all my film bro friend who otherwise would have skipped the movie. Now I want his clothes and style!
The world needed kenergy! 💪🐴
video was soo goood I would have happily watched another 7 minutes...or even full hour! it was just so well produced and interesting!
All the marketing of barbie honestly put me off
but yeah, it's not a bad strategy. Who doesn't want their product shoved into anything and everything
wow i mean i know its commercial over there, but my god all the tie ins, the worst i saw over here was 5 or so selfies on Facebook in barrbie boxes at the cinema.
Can you do one on regenerative agriculture, land regeneration pleaseeeee❤❤❤
I'm 90% I did not see any Barbie movie commercials during it's runtime. It's probably cause I don't use cable TV lol
7:29 no, no you’re not. I never stepped in a booth or did the Barbie selfie either.
3:51 with the months of work that these videos take and the amount of people doing revisions on them, how on earth did a watermarked video get on the published version??
Very interisting and good video. The production is so Good ! Bravo !
Don't forget social media played a big part.
it’s great to see that Barbie did so well. i’m not looking forward to the inevitable 2 to 564327 sequels or the 17 films about Kerplunk, which will be terrible. Jaws is the better film
I’m sure Barbie is good, but does it have a scene where a guy pulls a license plate out of a tiger shark’s alimentary canal? Ha! I didn’t think so!
A great addition to marketing textbooks in the near future.
i think how literally me (ryan gosling) and also the other me (cillian murphy) being in the both movies is big part in this
I had never even heard of this Barbie film until now. I guess I've been living under a rock. Though I did hear about Oppenheimer all over the place ...
Must be a huge rock, too.
Barbie and Oppenheimer became blockbusters because people actually wanted to see them right away and because both got memed
6:50 putting "Violent Night" in the horror trailer category is...interstating
5:21 Bad Boys 4 Life with the jump scare 😂😂
As always best analysis...
Not to be cynical, but if the cultural and commercial success that the Barbie movie, Taylor Swift, boy bands of the 90s and early 2010s, the pumpkin spice latte, and so many more other examples prove, is that content earnestly designed for and directed towards younger women is generally a success. They are the trendsetters in our society and yet they are often the most overlooked. If only the older men dominating marketing department understood this (and I say this as a younger straight man working in the marketing industry).
Loved the intro!
If you don't wanna watch the whole video, here's what it boils down to. Jaws and Barbie were such blockbusters because people really wanted to watch them.
Just looking at the barbie burger was enough to make me gag.
That was it? I was expecting more deep lol 😆
Mike Shinoda is talking about Jaws and Barbie?
Hey. Big box office, see that? Good movie? Good movie subvert expectations? Good movie do well? Good movie make money? Good movie good? Make more good move?
Watch how they’ll try to milk the Barbie movie by announcing a cinematic universe, and uh oh fool me once, part 2 is gonna have a massive drop. Marketing deserve a full win, as trailer showed to be fun and light hearted movie instead of a lecture on patriarchy.
I got so distracted by the huge getty images logo at 3:51 on such a simple image (a sunset? Vox could pay for a sunset, or find a free one) that i had to pause the video and write this comment
Really good analysis, really great Voooox!
The public relations nerd in me loves this
People who watched oppenheimer instead of barbie 🗿
He Has The Corridor App On His Phone!!
Guys, Dumbledore just died :((
Spoiler alert dude
@@danielhartridge1492No, they mean the actor.
No, the original Dumbledore actor died a long time ago. Hence, why in the 2nd movie onwards, they got a different actor. Which, I honestly liked less than the first.
Shame the 2nd Dumbledore actor has now passed too
Is it me or dude looks like another Jonas brother?
So basically… the movies were successful because they were marketed. Got it.
Please give me my 12 minutes back.
Barbie: Do you guys ever think about dying?
Hachiman Hikigaya: I DO ! Every SINGLE day!
I only watched barbie to heat thing up because I was going to this really cool beach. Let’s just say it didn’t turn well.
jaws is the blockbuster of all time
Barbie is like a visual eyegsm