“Barbie is really important for us,” beamed Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav on the conglom’s Q2 earnings call about what will be the first pic to hit $1 billion under his reign.
In celebrating the pic’s success, he indicated that the movie would hit streaming service Max in the fall.
However, on a long theatrical window.
“We really believe in the motion picture window — let it play out … go into PVOD, take it through the windows that have worked forever [in the business],” he said. “When it goes on Max, it will have a good impact in the fall.”
Separately, Deadline has noticed that Barbie will hit airlines this September.
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Zaslav since taking charge of Warner Bros Discovery has championed the theatrical window passionately, unlike the former Warner Bros Media administration that upset the town with their theatrical-day-and-date experiment on HBO Max during Covid.
Zaslav also mentioned how he rallied all the departments at the conglom to work together to build “The Summer of Barbie“. This included a Barbie dreamhouse special on HGTV which premiered to 4M viewers and was broadcasted in 106 countries as well as Barbie Food Network special and a sneak peek during NBA Finals on Turner sports. It’s a cross vertical promo playbook that Zaslav executed for HBO’s House of the Dragon and The Last of Us, as well as the videogame Hogwarts Legacy.
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“All of our platforms can have an impact globally,” he said today.
“It starts with great content,” he continued giving a shoutout to Margot Robbie and Barbie director Greta Gerwig’s globe-trotting promotion for the tentpole.
Barbie will cross the $400M mark at the domestic box office today, in its 14th day, beating Top Gun: Maverick and Super Mario Bros Movie to that benchmark, both crossing in 18 days. The Mattel doll should cross the $1 billion mark on either Sunday or Monday. Total global outlook per sources is $1.3 billion for Barbie.
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WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said today on the call that the fruits of Barbie will be realized in Q3 for the company.
Meanwhile, DC’s The Flash, which had a 31-day theatrical window to PVOD, was considered a drag on WBD’s lackluster Q2 today.
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Barbie was greenlit and shepherded by the former Warners motion picture administration led by Toby Emmerich and Courtenay Valenti.
Content Source: deadline.com