‘Barbie’: almost 2 million viewers in Peru less than a month after its premiere and what is coming to the cinema

The film, with a global box office of more than US$100 million, surpassed one million viewers in its first week of release in Peru, says the marketing manager of West Bay, distributor of Warner Bros. (producer of ‘Barbie ‘) to Day1. Also find out about the upcoming releases and why 2023 is accelerating the path to recovery of the film industry, with more than 30 million viewers in the country.

The ‘live action’ movie of ‘Barbie’ unleashed enormous expectations, even before it hit theaters, and from there it promised to be one of the great premieres of the year globally. So it was. A pink wave dragged boys and girls of different ages, who packed the cinemas from July 20.

According to Warner Bros. Pictures, producer of the film, ‘Barbie’ surpassed the staggering figure of US$ 1,030 million at the worldwide box office in its first three weeks of release, exceeding 10 times the budget of the film which, as indicated by the specialized website IMDb, was US$100 million.

And not only that. This has been the first production, directed by a woman, that surpasses the mark of US$1,000 million, according to Variety magazine. Its director, Greta Gerwig, has thus joined the select club of filmmakers who have achieved this feat.

In Peru, as of Wednesday of this week, less than a month after its premiere, ‘Barbie’ had close to 2 million viewers, with 1.9 million tickets sold, a historical record for a film of this genre, we comments Adriana Morel, marketing manager for West Bay, exclusive distributor for Peru of Warner Bros. Pictures (producer of the Barbie film).

“‘Barbie’ exceeded our expectations. We knew it was a movie with an interesting and unique proposal that would work, but we didn’t think it would cause such a stir among viewers. The last weeks before the premiere were key, and with such a strong marketing campaign that we had worldwide, it became an event that no one wanted to miss, greatly expanding the ‘target’ that we initially thought”, Morel assures Día1.

The blockbuster based on the Mattel doll surpassed the first million attendees during its first week of exhibition in theaters in our country. A clear sign that this would happen was that two days after the world premiere of the film, more than 123,000 Peruvians had already secured their pre-sale tickets. A blockbuster that is definitely, as Morel says, one of the most successful films of the year and is on track to be the number 1 opening of the year for West Bay. However, the executive specifies that there are still great films to be released in the remaining months of 2023.

This year, remember, there have been a couple of releases that have achieved very high numbers such as ‘Transformers 3’ or ‘Super Mario Bros’.

Earnings _ Due to the great success of ‘Barbie’, the actress Margot Robbie, who gives life to the Mattel doll, will receive US$50 million for her percentage of the film’s box office, according to a report by the specialized magazine Variety. Director Greta Gerwig will also be paid extra for these numbers.

For the executive, this first semester of 2023 has been very active and the film industry has had very solid numbers with a cumulative number of blockbusters, especially between the months of May and June. And, with movies like ‘Barbie’ in July. Based on his projections, the second half could match the first.