The Margot Robbie starrer Barbie is the blockbuster of the year. After a phenomenal opening, the Greta Gerwig directorial raced to the $1 billion club in just 17 days. It broke the record for the fastest billion for Warner Bros. studio, beating out Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
Barbie is also a cultural phenomenon, with Barbiecore fashion trending amongst the masses as well as lines from the film making their way into pop culture. The tagline of the film is, ‘She can do everything. He’s just Ken’ is making its rounds on the Internet. However, the popular tagline derived a whole new meaning when it was translated and released in France.
Barbie’s Road To Blockbuster Success
A Barbie movie has been in development since 2009 when Universal Pictures had the rights to the Mattel-owned toy. The film almost came to fruition in 2016 when stars Anne Hathaway and Amy Schumer were attached to the project. Schumer was still supposed to be in a film when the direction the films were going to go in was in line with the feminist movement of the time. However, the rights which had been transferred to Sony by then again got expired and it fell into the laps of WB in 2018.
Actress and producer Margot Robbie then approached the studio through her Lucky Chap Entertainment production for the adaptation. She brought in director Greta Gerwig to write the film, who co-wrote the screenplay along with husband and Marriage Story director Noah Baumbach. While Robbie was convinced that whatever they would come up with would ultimately be rejected, she was extremely surprised when the project was greenlit as Gerwig had included very serious themes in the film and had even placed Mattel as the antagonist.
When it was announced, Barbie became one of the most anticipated films of the year. It was also set to compete with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, with both films releasing on the same day. The polar opposite nature of the films prompted the Internet to term the double release Barbenheimer and they made it into a cinematic event. The double feature event was a huge success as the two films collectively earned over a billion at the box office.
Barbie was a huge hit, earning $1 billion within three weeks of release. It also became a cultural phenomenon, bringing the history of the iconic doll and creating a conversation around what it stands for. Its exploration of feminism in the present context was also lauded.
Barbie’s Iconic Tagline Lost In Translation
Of course, where there is Barbie, there is also Ken. The doll’s iconic companion was portrayed by Ryan Gosling (and many others) and was one of the highlights of the film. Gosling’s original song I’m Just Ken was on the US Billboard Hot 100 charts. The portrayal of Ken also started many conversations and part of the audience criticized the film for being ‘anti-men’. The film’s iconic tagline, ‘She can do everything. He’s just Ken’ has since turned into a popular meme template while also sparking conversations.
However, in a hilarious turn of events, the iconic tagline received an additional, unintentional layer when it was translated into French. In French, the word ‘Ken’ is the word for ‘f**k’. Hence, the tagline in French, ‘Elle peut tout faire. Lui, c’est juste Ken’ translated to ‘She can do everything. He just knows how to ‘f**k’.
The marketing campaign for Barbie has been aggressive and viral. With pink popping up everywhere, the studio has gone above and beyond to make sure the film reaches its audience. Hence, there are also speculations that the tagline fiasco could also be another instance of the team’s viral marketing campaign, addressing the feministic themes of the film.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
