‘Barbie’s’ dream brand collaborations—inside the movie's marketing machine

It’s rare for fans to know a character as intimately as Barbie—the shape of her foot, the floor plan of her home and the trajectory of her many careers. In the era of fandom, Hollywood is obsessed with bringing IP to life. Superheroes of static comic book pages, tabletop RPG adventures and even princesses and mermaids seen previously only in animation have all been adapted into live-action features. But in transferring Barbie’s world to the big screen, “Barbie” simply adds another dimension to the brand’s storied legacy of living in consumers’ worlds.