The Barbie movie is one of the biggest movies of the year. It’s been out barely over a weekend and it’s already one of the highest-grossing films of 2023 thanks to the biggest domestic opening weekend of the year. It has to feel pretty good for all involved, but possibly not more so for Mattel, the company that spent years trying to get their doll turned into a movie. Not only did it get done, but they clearly made the right choices regarding who should make the film, which is important because there were lots of other choices.
The Barbie movie existed at two different studios prior to arriving at Warner Bros. and had at least two different big names attached to star in the film. It souls like there were a lot of different pitches for what a Barbie movie should be. Robbie Brenner, the head of Mattel’s film division recently told Variety that while some of the other porches for Barbie were “interesting,” some were downright “terrible,” and it doesn’t sound like anybody was very excited about any ideas until Greta Gerwig came along. Brenner explained…
