Randall Park warns Hollywood not to learn the wrong lesson from Barbie

He's right: Barbie didn't become a million dollar grosser just because it's a movie about a toy

By Emma Keates  |  August 15, 2023 | 8:01pm
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Randall Park warns Hollywood not to learn the wrong lesson from Barbie
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Randall Park; Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig Photo: Frazer Harrison; Gareth Cattermole

If there’s one thing absolutely everyone agrees on, it’s that Barbie was really good for the economy. It’s easily the highest-grossing film from a female director ever and currently sits at a $1.2 billion worldwide box office (via Box Office Mojo). The film—along with (cousin? sibling?) Oppenheimer—gave AMC theaters its highest revenue week since the chain’s founding back in 1920. Even Margot Robbie herself is reportedly going to walk away with a $50 million paycheck.

This is all well and good. When an interesting, non-franchise movie like this wins, we all win, right? True… if Hollywood actually understands why people were so drawn to it in the first place. And, according to Randall Park, they absolutely do not.

“I feel like, just in general, this industry is taking the wrong lessons,” the Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania actor said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “For example, Barbie is this massive blockbuster, and the idea is: Make more movies about toys! No. Make more movies by and about women!”

To understand just how fully Mattel—and by extension the studios funding them—have missed the point, one need not look further than the toy company’s absolutely bonkers slate of upcoming programming, revealed to Variety late last month. Don’t worry though: it’s not actually about selling toys. It’s about “creating quality content” that just so happens to sell toys, per Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz.

In addition to the now somewhat notorious Lena Dunham/Lily Collins Polly Pocket movie—not to mention J.J. Abrams’ Hot Wheels and the Vin Diesel-starring Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, both of which we swear we didn’t generate in a randomizer—Mattel also has plans for Magic 8 Ball (it’ll “probably be a PG-13 thriller”), UNO, and Major Matt Mason (starring Tom Hanks) among many others.

“Successful movies lend themselves to more movies,” said Kreiz of the company’s ambition to “create film franchises.” Still, we can’t say we’ll be too surprised when View Master the movie (a real thing!) doesn’t exactly measure up to Barbie.

 
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