'Nostalgia marketing': How Barbie's massive marketing campaign worked so well

While 'Barbenheimer' certainly increased the hype for this history-making box office weekend, Barbie was already on track for a record box office before the memes kicked off, with a massive marketing campaign that experts say is difficult to replicate.

This past weekend was a huge one at the box office, with “Barbenheimer” proving it’s more than just an internet sensation.

Barbie smashed expectations, bringing in $162 million at the box office – the biggest opening weekend of the year.

And Oppenheimer, airing the same weekend, brought in more than $82 million, combining for the fourth largest box office weekend in North American history.

A big part of the history-making weekend was the memes that sprung up around the idea of doing a double feature of both films back to back, an idea which gained speed on social media due to the humour behind two films that couldn’t sound more different – one set in the world of a vividly pink toy franchise, and the other a historical film depicting the story of the development of the atomic bomb – sharing the same air date.

“That kind of excitement level is something we just haven’t seen in theatres for some time,” film critic and CTV News contributor Richard Crouse said of the reactions to the “Barbenheimer” craze. “And I love that it was organic, this wasn’t a marketing strategy.”

But while Barbenheimer certainly increased the hype, Barbie was already on track for a record box office before the memes kicked off.

“There’s not a corner of the globe that hasn’t turned pink,” President and COO of Mattel, Richard Dickson, said.