Press Release WHV Press Release: Barbie (2023) (Digital) (2 Viewers)

[Ronald Epstein]

The Highest Grossing Film of 2023 Worldwide



BARBIE


Debuts for Premium Digital Ownership and Rental on September 12 ​

The number one global release in Warner Bros. Pictures history from writer/director Greta Gerwig continues to dominate the box office with more than $1.38 billion worldwide



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Burbank, CA, September 5, 2023 – Take a trip to Barbie Land when “Barbie, the box office smash hit and global phenomenon, arrives for purchase and rental Digitally at home on September 12. From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig (“Little Women,” “Lady Bird”), “Barbie,” stars Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie (“Bombshell,” “I, Tonya”) and Ryan Gosling (“La La Land,” “Half Nelson”) as Barbie and Ken. Gerwig directed “Barbie” from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach (“Marriage Story,” “The Squid and the Whale”), based on Barbie by Mattel.



“Barbie” has taken the box office by storm, earning more than $1.38 billion worldwide to become the highest grossing film in Warner Bros.’ 100-year history; the highest grossing film ever from a female filmmaker at the domestic box office; and is the largest worldwide film release of 2023.



On September 12, “Barbie” will be available for early Premium Digital Ownership at home for $29.99 and 48-hour rental via PVOD for $24.99 on participating digital platforms where you purchase movies, including Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Vudu, and more.

“Barbie” also stars America Ferrera (“End of Watch,” the “How to Train Your Dragon” films), Kate McKinnon (“Bombshell,” “Yesterday”), Issa Rae (“The Photograph,” “Insecure”), Rhea Perlman (“I’ll See You in My Dreams,” “Matilda”), and Will Ferrell (the “Anchorman” films, “Talladega Nights”). The film also stars Michael Cera (“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” “Juno”), Ariana Greenblatt (“Avengers: Infinity War,” “65”), Ana Cruz Kayne (“Little Women”), Emma Mackey (“Emily,” “Sex Education”), Hari Nef (“Assassination Nation,” “Transparent”), Alexandra Shipp (the “X-Men” films), Kingsley Ben-Adir (“One Night in Miami,” “Peaky Blinders”), Simu Liu (“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”), Ncuti Gatwa (“Sex Education”), Scott Evans (“Grace and Frankie”), Jamie Demetriou (“Cruella”), Connor Swindells (“Sex Education,” “Emma.”), Sharon Rooney (“Dumbo,” “Jerk”), Nicola Coughlan (“Bridgerton,” “Derry Girls”), Ritu Arya (“The Umbrella Academy”), Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Dua Lipa and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren (“The Queen”).

The film’s producers are Oscar nominees David Heyman (“Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood,” “Marriage Story,” “Gravity”), Robbie (“Birds of Prey,” “Promising Young Woman,” “I, Tonya”), Tom Ackerley (“Promising Young Woman,” “I, Tonya”) and Robbie Brenner (“Dallas Buyers Club”), with Gerwig, Baumbach, Ynon Kreiz, Richard Dickson, Michael Sharp, Josey McNamara, Courtenay Valenti, Toby Emmerich and Cate Adams serving as executive producers.



Synopsis:

To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken.

DIGITAL ELEMENTS​

“Barbie” Premium Digital Ownership contains the following special features:

• Welcome to Barbie Land – featurette (11:41)
• Becoming Barbie – featurette (6:24)
• Playing Dress-Up – featurette (7:38)
• Musical Make Believe – featurette (6:22)
• All-Star Barbie Party – featurette (5:14)
• It’s A Weird World – featurette (5:02)

BASICS



Premium Digital Ownership: September 12, 2023

$29.99

PVOD: September12, 2023

$24.99​

Running Time: 114 minutes

Rating: PG-13 for suggestive references and brief language





THE CREDITS

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About “Barbie”

From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig (“Little Women,” “Lady Bird”) comes “Barbie,” starring Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie (“Bombshell,” “I, Tonya”) and Ryan Gosling (“La La Land,” “Half Nelson”) as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera (“End of Watch,” the “How to Train Your Dragon” films), Kate McKinnon (“Bombshell,” “Yesterday”), Issa Rae (“The Photograph,” “Insecure”), Rhea Perlman (“I’ll See You in My Dreams,” “Matilda”), and Will Ferrell (the “Anchorman” films, “Talladega Nights”). The film also stars Michael Cera (“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” “Juno”), Ariana Greenblatt (“Avengers: Infinity War,” “65”), Ana Cruz Kayne (“Little Women”), Emma Mackey (“Emily,” “Sex Education”), Hari Nef (“Assassination Nation,” “Transparent”), Alexandra Shipp (the “X-Men” films), Kingsley Ben-Adir (“One Night in Miami,” “Peaky Blinders”), Simu Liu (“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”), Ncuti Gatwa (“Sex Education”), Scott Evans (“Grace and Frankie”), Jamie Demetriou (“Cruella”), Connor Swindells (“Sex Education,” “Emma.”), Sharon Rooney (“Dumbo,” “Jerk”), Nicola Coughlan (“Bridgerton,” “Derry Girls”), Ritu Arya (“The Umbrella Academy”), Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Dua Lipa and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren (“The Queen”).



Gerwig directed “Barbie” from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach (“Marriage Story,” “The Squid and the Whale”), based on Barbie by Mattel. The film’s producers are Oscar nominees David Heyman (“Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood,” “Marriage Story,” “Gravity”), Robbie (“Birds of Prey,” “Promising Young Woman,” “I, Tonya”), Tom Ackerley (“Promising Young Woman,” “I, Tonya”) and Robbie Brenner (“Dallas Buyers Club”), with Gerwig, Baumbach, Ynon Kreiz, Richard Dickson, Michael Sharp, Josey McNamara, Courtenay Valenti, Toby Emmerich and Cate Adams serving as executive producers.



Gerwig’s creative team behind the camera included Oscar-nominated director of photography Rodrigo Prieto (“The Irishman,” “Silence,” “Brokeback Mountain”), Oscar-nominated production designer Sarah Greenwood (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Anna Karenina”), Oscar-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran (“Little Women,” “Anna Karenina”), editor Nick Houy (“Little Women,” “Lady Bird”), visual effects supervisor Glen Pratt (“Paddington 2,” “Beauty and the Beast”) and music supervisor George Drakoulias (“White Noise,” “Marriage Story”), with a score by Oscar winners Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt (“A Star Is Born”), who also contributed to numerous songs on the film’s soundtrack. The soundtrack includes an impressive roster of today’s hottest music artists, including Lizzo, Dua Lipa, Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice with Aqua, Charli XCX, KAROL G feat. Aldo Ranks, Tame Impala, Dominic Fike, HAIM, The Kid LAROI, Khalid, PinkPantheress, GAYLE, Ava Max, FIFTY FIFTY and more.



Warner Bros. Pictures Presents a Heyday Films Production, a LuckyChap Entertainment Production, an NB/GG Pictures Production, a Mattel Production, “Barbie.” The film is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.

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[Ronald Epstein]

I am temporarily keeping this post in the Blu-ray area. It will be moved to streaming over the next day or two.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Warner's social media people just posted this on the Barbie Facebook:


"Buy it and then pay us again to see it in IMAX a couple weeks later after you bought it" might not be the best messaging in the world.

I've also got to say I'm a little surprised by that list of bonus features. It doesn't seem like much. I assume that the eventual Blu-ray Disc will have the same features, which seems to be the case most of the time. I was hoping that Greta Gerwig would do an audio commentary as she did for Lady Bird. If this was even five years ago, I would expect them to do a Blu-ray double dip. But now, this will probably be the only edition.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Commentaries for new releases are generally recorded around the time of a film’s premiere. With Gerwig serving as a writer on the film, and the writer’s guild on strike, her union obligations may have limited her availability for recording one.

 

[Tino]

I woulda bit at $19.99. No way at $29.99.

 

[Jake Lipson]

With Gerwig serving as a writer on the film, and the writer’s guild on strike, her union obligations may have limited her availability for recording one.

Good theory. But Gerwig appeared at the Barbie premiere and took part in promotion for it even while the writers were on strike. So I think the fact that the DGA was able to sign a deal probably made a difference there. She is in the position of being both a writer and a director. So one of her unions has a deal with the AMPTP right now and the other one does not That's got to be challenging to figure out how to honor your directorial obligations while also being on strike.

Noah Baumbach, who co-wrote with Gerwig, skipped the premiere. The difference is that his only involvement in the film was as a writer, whereas she pulled double duty.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I woulda bit at $19.99.

The price for the digtial version will almost surely decrease when the Blu-ray comes out and it's no longer a "premium" digital title. They're just doing it with a window to see how many people will buy it at a higher price before that happens. This is perfectly normal these days.

 

[Tino]

The price will almost surely decrease when the Blu-ray comes out and it's no longer a "premium" digital title. They're just doing it with a window to see how many people will buy it at a higher price before that happens. This is perfectly normal these days.

I know that. But the highest I’ve seen is $24.99 to purchase digitally and many at $19.99. That was my point.

 

[johnmcmasters]

.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Still no news of the physical release? Several old digital bits posts had today (10/3) pegged as the release date, but that apparently never materialized.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Still no news of the physical release? Several old digital bits posts had today (10/3) pegged as the release date, but that apparently never materialized.

Nope.

I wrote an entire thread about my concerns with this.

It seems that with INDIANA JONES, BARBIE, and recently, MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING 3 there are now three studios who are announcing digital-only releases without the mention of discs.

The window is still there for a December release on any three of these titles, but it doesn't follow the normal pattern of how we expect Q4 physical disc releases to be announced.

 

[Malcolm R]

Disney only announced Haunted Mansion on 9/12, for a 10/17 release, with the pre-orders just going live today, so the lead times have been cut pretty short recently. Not sure if this is a policy change, or if they're having difficulty knowing exactly when their discs will be able to be manufactured and ready for release. I know I've had a couple other disc-media items delayed recently because they said there were delays in manufacturing and shipping.

So if they're only giving about a month notice or less, there's still plenty of time for the other titles here to be announced for a release before year's end.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Speaking of which...stand by for a separate announcement...

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Physical Disc announcement and it's coming up FAST

Press Release - WHV Press Release: Barbie (2023) (4k UHD) (Blu-ray)

The Highest Grossing Film of 2023 Worldwide BARBIE Take her home on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD on October 17 The number one global release in Warner Bros. Pictures history from writer/director Greta Gerwig with more than $1.43 billion worldwide arrives to buy on DVD formats. EXTRA to...

www.hometheaterforum.com

 

[Jake Lipson]

It seems that with INDIANA JONES, BARBIE, and recently, MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING 3 there are now three studios who are announcing digital-only releases without the mention of discs.

I see your point and agree with it. However, one of those things/studios is not like the others. My Big Greek Wedding 3 is a Universal release which opened to less than $50 million domestically. At the height of the pandemic, Universal cut a deal with theater owners to allow any of their releases opening under that $50 million benchmark to have a 17-day theatrical window before going to digital platforms. That is the new normal for Universal titles now and, as far as I know, none of them have had discs announced on day #18.

I think the arrangement for Universal is just about getting underperforming titles into the home marketplace as soon as possible to recoup costs. Greek Wedding 3 is not working in theaters, so I don't think Universal has anything to lose by putting that out early for those who want really it.

On the other hand, Indiana Jones and Barbie (as well as Avatar earlier this year) having longer than normal windows between the theatrical release and disc announcement seem more like deliberate attempts to push fans to digital because they are higher profile releases.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Disc sales are now roughly half of what digital sales are, and both categories are dwarfed by subscription streaming, which in total brings in more revenue now than disc sales did at their highest peak. They don’t need to push people away from discs; the evolution of technology already did that. I think it’s more of a matter that the physical media infrastructure is a mess, and there isn’t enough demand for the product to fix the infrastructure. Waiting until the last second to announce a release date allows them to minimize postponements when replication issues occur, which saves time and money, and waiting to see how well a title is performing digitally gives them a better window on demand so they’re not wasting money printing more copies than are needed that they will then be forced to liquidate. There may be a strategic element to having certain disc titles coming closer to gift giving holiday season that gives certain titles a small boost. But the idea that they’re doing this to push people towards digital? People are already there.