Barbie Movie: Release Date, Cast, Trailer & Everything We Know (2024)

The first major live-action Barbie movie is nearly here, over 60 years since the first-ever Barbie was released in 1959 — and the excitement for Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie's cinematic homage to one of the most iconic toys of all time is palpable. The IP that comes with Barbie has been extremely popular since the doll’s inception and success, as the doll and its toy extensions have spawned animated movies, fashion inspiration, conversations about women’s expectations, vlogs, and a hit song. Now an award-winning filmmaker and a star-studded cast are set to bring the Barbie movie to the big screen after becoming one of the most-talked-about movies of the year.

Greta Gerwig has taken over Hollywood in the past few years as an actress and filmmaker with directorial successes like Lady Bird and Little Women. The new Barbie movie marks a more mainstream effort for the filmmaker, being one of the most anticipated movies of 2023. The themes in Gerwig's movies have sparked much conversation about feminism and women’s treatment in society, a topic Barbie will face head-on. While the massive cast of the movie gained Barbie a lot of attention early on, its marketing campaign has made it a phenomenon, and the July 2023 Barbie movie release date is one of the most anticipated of the year.

Related: 10 Most Exciting Things To Expect From The Barbie Movie

The Latest Barbie Movie News

The Barbie movie is right around the corner with the premiere set for July 21, 2023. After the Barbie movie's much-raved-about marketing campaign, it is set to be one of the biggest openings of the year. Of course, part of the conversation around its opening is the Barbie and Oppenheimer face-off. The tongue-in-cheek epic rivalry between the two movies releasing on the same day but has now grown into something more positive. There is plenty of talk about people deciding to see both movies on the same weekend or even the same day, and even A-Listers such as Tom Cruise are pushing for the Oppenheimer and Barbie double-bill.

Barbie Movie Release Date

The Barbie release date is right around the corner on July 21st, 2023, and it's unclear when the feature film will head to streaming. After being confirmed in 2019, filming for Barbie kicked off in March of 2022, with various pictures seen of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling filming in Venice Beach and L.A. Production officially wrapped for most of the Barbie cast in July 2022. However, for fans who can't wait until Barbie's wide release, it will also be released in select theaters at 7 pm on July 19th for the special "blowout party" preview.

The Barbie movie release date falls right alongside Oppenheimer, which has caused huge competition between the two fan-bases and speculation over which will be more successful — and it's also led to many theaters offering double-bill tickets to see both. Though the two movies' releases will hardly impact the other, early projections suggest that Barbie will be way more successful than the Christopher Nolan-directed movie (via Box Office Pro), at least when it comes to the opening weekend in July 2023. The Barbie movie is projected to make between $55-$85 million in its opening weekend, whereas Oppenheimer is projected to make $40-55 million.

Barbie Movie Cast & Crew

The Barbie movie cast is exceptionally well selected, with everyone from Margot Robbie's Barbie and Ryan Gosling's Ken to Michael Cera's Alan and Will Ferrel's President of Mattel feeling perfect for their role. Barbie is Gerwig's third directed film following Little Women in 2019. She also wrote the movie’s screenplay with her long-time partner and frequent collaborator Noah Baumbach. Robbie leads the Barbie cast as the titular doll and while the trailer clearly shows that there are multiple Barbies in Barbie Land, it seems as though Robbie's version is the original icon herself. Meanwhile, Gosling is playing the quintessential Ken, Barbie's boyfriend.

The star-studded cast for Barbie beyond Robbie and Gosling is vast. Issa Rae is the president of Barbie Land while Alexandra Shipp, Emma Mackey, Ritu Arya, Nicola Coughlan, Sharon Rooney, Anya Cruz Kanye, Kate McKinnon, and Hari Nef play other versions of Barbie. Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir and Ncuti Gatwa playing other versions of Ken. Michael Cera and Emerald Fennell also received character posters as Alan and Midge respectively. The trailer also features a glimpse of Will Ferrell playing the President of Mattel in the real world. Meanwhile, John Cena will portray Merman Ken alongside Dua Lipa's Mermaid Barbie.

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Barbie Movie Story

The Barbie movie plot follows Robbie's Barbie who is expelled from Barbieland after not following its regulations of being perfect enough. In the Barbie movie story, the doll then embarks on an adventure where she discovers life without the confines of perfection. She chooses to test the real world and Ken tags along, which sees them meet the toy boss who isn't happy about their decision. From there, the pair struggle to adjust to the real world and learn many self-truths along the way. Self-discovery and actualization will be at the heart of the Barbie movie, as Robbie and Gosling's Barbie and Ken find life in Barbieland to be perfect yet unfulfilling.

The Barbie movie also looks to explore some of the unrealistic levels of perfection the Barbie toys have been criticized for promoting over the years. There also seems to be some interesting commentary on gender roles as the latest character posters for Barbie highlight the Barbies' various achievements while the Kens are humorously diminished. For instance, Emma Mackey's Barbie is described as having a Nobel Prize in physics while Anya Cruz Kanye's Barbie is a Supreme Court Justice. On the other hand, Gosling's poster reads "He's just Ken" while Liu's states "He's another Ken."

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Barbie Movie Trailer

The Barbie movie trailer instantly made the July release date marked in many calendars. It revealed Gerwig's vision of the Barbie movie as a cartoonish, surreal, and ambitious blockbuster with Robbie exemplifying the iconic aspects of Barbie with her impossibly pointed feet and her ever-present smile. Gosling also looks hilarious as the archetypal "himbo" Ken, and his Barbie character is being discussed just as much as Barbie herself (something Ken would no doubt be over-the-moon to hear, judging by the lyrics of the "I'm Just Ken" song used to promote Barbie). The Barbie trailer gives glimpses of some big musical numbers at Barbie's house before she departs to the real world with Ken in tow. There, shenanigans go down with them getting arrested, Barbie talking to kids who don't like Barbie dolls, and Ken thinking he can perform surgery simply because he's a man.

Also, while it's not a trailer, Architectural Digest provided a tour of the Barbie movie set (via YouTube), detailing how much effort it took to bring it to life with miniatures and a lot of pink. The clip opens with Robbie giving a tour of the Barbie Dreamhouse and explaining, "Not super practical, but nothing is for Barbie." Gerwig stressfully admits in the clip, "I can't tell you the number of meetings we've had about pink." However, the director also gives some fascinating insight into the set's influences, revealing, "Because Barbie was invented in 1959, it felt we could ground everything in that look of 1950s soundstage musicals."