What happens when two summer blockbusters launch in the same week that are clearly intended for different audiences? “Barbenheimer!” On Friday, 7/21 two big summer movies, Barbie and Oppenheimer premiered. Many movie fans bought tickets to see the movies back to back, which gave the struggling movie theater industry a nice mid-summer boost!
The opening weekend box office numbers show that Barbie claimed the #1 movie with over $155 million in ticket sales between the US and Canada, which is also the biggest debut by a female director, while Oppenheimer’s US sales hit $80.5 million. This past weekend, their numbers were still quite impressive with Barbie hitting over $93 million and Oppenheimer over $46 million, staying in 1st and 2nd place respectively for the 2nd week in a row.
Now you may be wondering why we are mentioning these movies. We want to focus on Barbie in particular. The marketing and merchandising partnerships are widespread across many different categories. To name just a few from Barbie: clothes for the dolls that are from the movie, shoes by Aldo, nail polish by OPI, Progressive’s secret client commercial, Chevy Blazer EV SS commercial, a Ruggable line, and a real-life Barbie Dream House Air BNB!
Locally, companies have been trying to capitalize on the Barbie “pink” craze with everything from wearing pink during a certain time or day for a discount to creating special pink sales, pink ice cream sprinkles, or pink drinks (no, not that one). The lesson is that we don’t always know when something is going to become the next craze. Your business should be flexible enough to pivot and catch some of the buzz, even if it is just showing your employees on social media with the Barbie filter! We can help…let’s go!
Have a great week!
Ron
President and Founder, Engage Media
To learn about how Engage Media can help your business, please visit www.engagemedia.com, email us at info@engagemedia.com, or feel free to book an appointment here. Our team of professionals is ready to assist you with all your digital and traditional media needs.
