Barbie (film)

This article is about the 2023 live-action film. For the animated Barbie films, see List of Barbie films.

Barbie
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Greta Gerwig
Produced by	David Heyman Margot Robbie Tom Ackerley Robbie Brenner
Written by	Greta Gerwig Noah Baumbach
Based on	Barbie by Mattel
Starring	Margot Robbie Ryan Gosling America Ferrera Kate McKinnon Michael Cera Issa Rae Rhea Perlman Will Ferrell
Music by	Mark Ronson Andrew Wyatt
Cinematography	Rodrigo Prieto
Edited by	Nick Houy
Production company	Heyday Films LuckyChap Entertainment NB/GG Pictures Mattel Films
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date	July 9, 2023 (2023-07-09) (Shrine Auditorium) July 21, 2023 (2023-07-21) (United States)
Running time	114 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$128–145 million
Box office	$578.8 million

Barbie is a 2023 American fantasy comedy film directed by Greta Gerwig, who also wrote it with Noah Baumbach. Based on the Barbie fashion dolls by Mattel, it is the first live-action Barbie film after numerous computer-animated direct-to-video and streaming television films. The film follows Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) on a journey of self-discovery following an existential crisis. It features an ensemble cast, including America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, and Will Ferrell.

A live-action Barbie film was announced in September 2009 by Universal Pictures with Laurence Mark producing. Development began in April 2014, when Sony Pictures acquired the film rights. Following multiple writer and director changes and the casting of Amy Schumer and later Anne Hathaway as Barbie, the rights were transferred to Warner Bros. Pictures in October 2018. Robbie was cast in 2019, and Gerwig was announced as director and co-writer with Baumbach in 2021. The rest of the cast were announced in early 2022. Filming took place primarily at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, in England and on the Venice Beach Skatepark in Los Angeles from March to July 2022.

Barbie premiered at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on July 9, 2023, and was theatrically released in the United States on July 21, 2023, by Warner Bros. Pictures. Its simultaneous release with Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer led to the "Barbenheimer" phenomenon on social media, which encouraged audiences to see both films as a double feature. The film received mostly positive reviews from critics and has grossed over $578 million worldwide, becoming the seventh-highest grossing film of 2023.

Plot

Stereotypical Barbie ("Barbie") and a wide range of fellow Barbies all reside in Barbieland, an matriarchal society where women are self-confident, self-sufficient, and successful. While their Ken counterparts spend their days engaging in recreational activities at the beach, the Barbies hold all important job positions such as doctors, lawyers, and politicians. Beach Ken ("Ken") is only happy when he is with Barbie and seeks a closer relationship, but Barbie rebuffs him in favor of independence and female friendships.

During a dance party, Barbie is suddenly stricken with worries about mortality. The next day, she finds she can no longer complete her usual routine and discovers her feet have gone flat and she has cellulite. Weird Barbie, a wise but disfigured outcast, tells her that to cure her affliction, she must travel into the real world and find the child playing with her. On her way to the real world, Barbie finds Ken stowed away in her convertible, and reluctantly allows him to join her.

Arriving at Venice Beach, the two cause multiple antics, alarming the Mattel CEO, who orders their capture. Barbie tracks down her owner, a tween girl named Sasha, who criticizes her for encouraging unrealistic beauty standards. Distraught, Barbie discovers that Gloria, a Mattel employee and Sasha's mother, is the catalyst of her existential crisis. Gloria began to play with Sasha's old Barbie toys while experiencing her own identity crisis, inadvertently transferring her concerns to Barbie. Mattel attempts to put Barbie in a toy box for remanufacturing, but she escapes with Gloria and Sasha's help, and the three travel to Barbieland, with the Mattel CEO and high-ranking executives in pursuit.

Meanwhile, Ken learns about the patriarchal system, and feels respected and accepted for the first time. Returning to Barbieland, he persuades the other Kens to take over, and the Barbies are subjugated into submissive roles such as maids, housewives, and agreeable girlfriends. Barbie arrives and tries to convince Ken and the Barbies to return to the way things were, only to be rebuffed. She becomes depressed, but Gloria gives an inspirational speech about society's conflicting expectations of women, restoring Barbie's self-confidence.

With the assistance of Sasha, Weird Barbie, Allan, and other discontinued dolls, Gloria uses her messagings on all the Barbies to bring them out of their subordinate behaviors. The restored Barbies then manipulate the Kens to fight amongst themselves and be distracted from altering the constitution to enshrine male superiority, while the Barbies regain their positions of power. In the process, they also realize the error of their previous societal system, and decide to make some changes in Barbieland, including better treatment for the Kens and all outcast dolls.

Barbie and Ken apologize to each other and acknowledge their failings. Ken bemoans that he has no identity or purpose without Barbie, to which Barbie encourages him to find an autonomous identity. Barbie, who remains unsure of her own purpose and identity, meets with the spirit of Mattel co-founder and Barbie inventor Ruth Handler, who explains that Barbie's story has no set ending and her ever-evolving history surpasses that of her roots.

After the Barbies, Kens, and Mattel executives bid Barbie goodbye, she decides to become human and return to the real world. Some time later, Gloria, her husband, and Sasha take Barbie, now going by the name "Barbara Handler", to her first gynecological appointment.

Cast

Margot Robbie (left) and Ryan Gosling (right) portray Barbie and Ken.

• Margot Robbie as Barbie, often referred to as "Stereotypical Barbie"
• Different variations of Barbie played by:
  • Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie
  • Issa Rae as President Barbie
  • Alexandra Shipp as Writer Barbie
  • Emma Mackey as Physicist Barbie
  • Hari Nef as Dr. Barbie
  • Sharon Rooney as Lawyer Barbie
  • Ana Cruz Kayne as Judge Barbie
  • Ritu Arya as Journalist Barbie
  • Dua Lipa as the Mermaid Barbies
  • Nicola Coughlan as Diplomat Barbie
  • Mette Narrative as Barbie Video Girl
  • Marisa Abela as Teen Talk Barbie
  • Lucy Boynton as Proust Barbie
• Ryan Gosling as Ken, often referred to as "Beach Ken"
• Different variations of Ken played by:
  • Simu Liu as Tourist Ken
  • Kingsley Ben-Adir as Basketball Ken
  • Scott Evans as Stereotypical Ken
  • Ncuti Gatwa as Artist Ken
  • John Cena as Kenmaid, a merman Ken
  • Rob Brydon as Sugar Daddy Ken
  • Tom Stourton as Earring Magic Ken
• America Ferrera as Gloria, a Mattel employee who helps Barbie in the real world
• Michael Cera as Allan
• Ariana Greenblatt as Sasha, Gloria's daughter
  • Genvieve Toussaint as young Sasha
• Rhea Perlman as the spirit of Ruth Handler, the co-founder of Mattel
• Helen Mirren as the narrator
• Will Ferrell as the CEO of Mattel
• Connor Swindells as Aaron Dinkins, a Mattel employee
• Jamie Demetriou as the CFO of Mattel
• Emerald Fennell as Midge
• Erica Ford as Skipper
  • Hannah Khalique-Brown as "Growing Up" Skipper
• Ann Roth as the woman on the bench
• Ryan Piers Williams as Gloria's husband