Credit: Inside The MagicAfter the box office success of Barbie (2023) over the weekend and still tracking well, Mattel is looking to build off of that world to create a cinematic universe that will include projects like Hot Wheels and UNO.
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‘Barbie’ Succeeds at the Box Office
Barbie earned well over $200 in the first five days of its domestic run and is on track to make well over $500 million globally in the coming days. The film’s success is undoubtedly due to the marketing campaign launched earlier this year by Warner Bros., making this an easy win for the studio, which hasn’t seen much success at the global box office recently. Ryan Gosling starred in the Barbie movie as the lovable Ken Doll, which Greta Gerwig directed. Margot Robbie played the iconic Barbie doll and directly made many creative references (and creative differences) to the Mattel toy line. Other notable actors in the film included Michael Cera, America Ferrera, Helen Mirren, Emma Mackey, Kate Mckinnon, Issa Rae, Simu Liu, and many more. Warner Bros Pictures has seen big success for the movie, according to the Hollywood Reporter, which includes portraying the Barbie Dreamhouse, Barbie Land, Malibu Barbie, and many other references to the toy line.
Social media went into a frenzy following the announcement of the movie. Once the first trailer dropped, everyone began to toss their bid into the box office numbers, pinning Barbie up against Oppenheimer, which also saw huge success in its first weekend at the movies. The pinning against one another stopped after prominent Hollywood actors like Tom Cruise said they would visit both films as the domestic box office saw a steady decline following the global pandemic 2020. Since then, the market for movie theaters has decreased, with companies like Regal Entertainment having to shut down locations nationwide.
Following the success of Barbie, it would appear that Mattel is eyeing a cinematic universe of its own, similar to Marvel, Star Wars, and DC Comics.
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Mattel Executives Eyeing Potential Cinematic Universe, Which Will Include Board Game Movies and More Toy Films
Mattel is already hard at work gearing up to release many movies based on their intellectual properties, such as Barney, Hot Wheels, and UNO. According to Pop Base on Twitter and various other entertainment and movie news outlets, Mattel has the following films in its upcoming box office slate:
• Barney
• Polly Pocket
• Hot Wheels
• Magic 8 Ball
• UNO
• Rock’ Em Sock’ Em Robots
• Christmas Balloon
• Thomas and Friends
• American Girl
• View-Master
• Matchbox
• Wishbone
• Major Matt Mason
• Masters of the Universe
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Mattel executives wanting a cinematic universe based around Barbie and other films comes to no surprise as this new and trendy film company move has given success to studios like Disney, Lucasfilm, and more. But this should be taken lightly, as there is no guarantee that a movie will succeed just because another IP did well at the box office. Universal attempted to prematurely announce a Monsters Cinematic Universe back when they rebooted The Mummy starring Tom Cruise, which proved to be a poor move as the film did not produce the numbers Universal Pictures was looking for at the time. The Universe has since been scrapped, and Mattel should tread carefully to avoid repeating the same mistake. Still, it will be interesting to see UNO and Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots starring Vin Diesel sometime soon.