This overwhelming success can perhaps be attributed by the fact that director Greta Gerwig and the entire cast understood their main target audience—women and girls.
Barbie's main customers have always been young girls, usually between the ages of 3 and 12. Anyway, the brand has been able to reach more people of all ages over the years, and now fans and adults are also interested in it.
Our recommendation is that the movie should be safe for nearly all children ages 11 and older (which Common Sense Media seconds). If your kids are younger and they're still dying to watch the movie, take these considerations in mind and decide for yourself.
✓ The target market for Barbie doll sales is young girls ages 3 – 12 years of age. ✓ A girl usually has her first Barbie by age 3, and collects a total of seven dolls during her childhood.
The movie theater audience of summer blockbuster "Barbie" was mostly female, with a share of 66.2 percent of moviegoers, while more than 70 percent of "Oppenheimer" audience was male.
While there are no harmful scenes or impactful language used, the adult themes of the film coupled with the violence mean that parental guidance is recommended for younger children. There are adult themes which younger viewers will likely not understand but could be curious about.
“I felt that the movie was a journey to self-discovery,” she explains. “Every character was along that journey in finding out who they really are and discovering that, at the end of the day, anyone can be anything and there's no one to stop you.”
The Barbie movie was designed to shine light on how messed up the patriarchy is. The Barbie movie was not designed to belittle men or make them out to be the villain; the Barbie movie is about spreading awareness on how the patriarchy affects everyone, not just women.
In the movie, one character named Sasha explains how Barbie represents everything wrong in today's culture and how it set back the feminist movement. She also details how Barbie promoted the ideas of women being objectified and sexualized by men, and how appearance is the only factor playing into a woman's worth.
During my research, I found the main target market for Mattel was females around the ages of 30-40 who typically have children. Diving deeper into the consumer of Mattel I was able to find that 51% of Mattel's audience is female and 48% is male.
Ultimately, Barbie chooses to become human and embrace her own body, but the ending hints at the possibility of future limitations imposed by the Mattel corporation.
According to sociologist Mary Rogers, Barbie is “brimming with multiple meanings”. She is not just a toy, rather, she signifies how women had ever more choices opened to them as the twentieth century progressed. As Prown has put it, when a “society undergoes change… this manifests itself artifactually”.
The casting was perfect and the acting was amazing! The set was next level, the tiny details were all there and even the highest barbie fan couldn't ask for anything more from it. It is PERFECTION. The first half of the movie was really good, a decent plot, plenty of laughs and a decent explanation of what is going on.
There are some progressive feminist moments in the film, but they are likely lost on most audiences as the material comes across as throwaway lines: 'I'm a man with no power, does that make me a woman? ' and 'everyone hates women, men hate women, women hate women.
In August, ResumeBuilder.com surveyed three hundred Americans who saw the film, and asked how it impacted their opinions on gender roles in the workplace. 63% said that they were more aware of patriarchy in the workplace and 53% said that the movie improved their view of women in the workplace.
As Barbie said, “You have to try – even if you can't make it perfect you can make it better.” So, what does this mean for you? All leadership really begins with an understanding of oneself. It's impossible to understand and motivate others if you don't understand yourself and what motivates you.
Surely it is possible to criticize “Barbie” as a creative endeavor. To state that despite its overstuffed playroom aesthetic and musical glaze, the movie was boring. There were no recognizable human characters, something four “Toy Story” movies have shown can be done in a movie populated by toys.
The reason that “Barbie Girl” won't be in Barbie is more than just a licensing or rights issue though. Some of it has to do with the fact that Barbie's parent company Mattel sued the Aqua group for trademark infringement because of the song in 1997.
It's funny but it also has a deep meaning of self recognition and finding out who you really are. It could be for 7 and 8 year olds but the deeper meaning would be hard for them to understand.
The BBFC's 12A rating of Barbie was a result of the movie containing "moderate innuendo, brief sexual harassment, implied strong language", and the ratings page contains extra details about those categories.
