Few movies in recent memory have garnered as much fanfare and excitement as Barbie. Directed by Greta Gerwig (Little Women, Lady Bird), the film stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as the popular Mattel toys Barbie and Ken, respectively. With many other directors and stars, the film might be relegated to a nostalgic children’s movie to give parents a reprieve from finding ways to keep their kids entertained. But with Gerwig at the helm, along with the star-studded cast, moviegoers young and old have been thrilled by the prospect of a fun film with an artful touch.
And the box office receipts have matched! Barbie is expected to cross the $1 Billion threshold at the box office this weekend. It also helps that Barbie was equipped with a seemingly infinite marketing budget. The movie’s promo includes multiple brand collaborations (Xbox, OPI, etc), a soundtrack put together by Mark Ronson, and various interviews from the film’s charismatic cast (cut short by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike).
And then there’s Oppenheimer. The tonal antithesis to Barbie, Oppenheimer was released the same day, and became a paired outing—”Barbenheimer“—for audiences looking for a mix of light-hearted content with a serious character-study biopic. AMC Theatres reported major sales from the joint release, with thousands of people purchasing tickets for both films. It’s exciting to see audiences still have an interest in high-quality cinema, despite the pandemic and growing fatigue from more populist blockbuster filmmaking.
Now that both Barbie and Oppenheimer have been out for a couple weeks, it may be a bit easier to get a seat in theaters for yourself. But you still may want to skip the entire double feature event and wait until Barbie is available to watch at home. When might that be? Here’s what we know.
How to Watch Barbie
Barbie premiered on July 21, 2023. In the streaming era, films usually play in theaters for at least a month before heading to a platform that you can subscribe to. And if the film is particularly successful, it may take even longer before its theatrical run ends.
There’s no telling when Barbie will leave theaters, but we can tell you with certainty that Gerwig’s film will stream on Max this fall, after it has concluded both its theatrical run and its paid VOD run.
“We really believe in the motion picture window,” Warner Bros. Discovery president David Zaslav recently said. “Let this movie go to the motion picture window, play it up, build up that brand, then have it go into PVOD. Take it through these windows of economics that have worked forever, and we think work extremely well. And then put it on Max. And when it goes on Max, we think it’ll have a very good impact, and that’ll be in the Fall.”
Where Is Barbie Streaming?
It’s not streaming yet. But when it does leave theaters, Barbie will first go to paid VOD—where it will be available for rent on Amazon Prime, Apple, etc—and then will head to Max, where all Warner Bros. productions end up.
There, you’ll be able to watch the film with a subscription.
Milan Polk is an Editorial Assistant for Men’s Health who specializes in entertainment and lifestyle reporting, and has worked for New York Magazine’s Vulture and Chicago Tribune.
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