MARBLEHEAD — Movie theaters across the country have been flooded with pink and glitter since the release of “Barbie,” starring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken. The Warwick Theater on Pleasant Street has been no exception.
On Monday night, a group of 12 friends, eight of whom are members at Rock n’ Row, came to the theater in all different shades of pink to experience the phenomenon.
The first version of Barbie was invented in 1959 by American businesswoman Ruth Handler. Since then, the Barbie brand has exploded to sell 176 different dolls and become a staple children’s toy.
Some of the group members offered up their memories of playing with Barbies growing up, and how the movie brought back some of that nostalgia.
“It just brought back memories of playing with Barbies as a kid, like cutting her hair and the Barbie Dreamhouse,” Noreen Rodgers said.
Judy Parrella also saw the movie with the group. Although she enjoyed the movie and its transitions between reality and fantasy, she grew up with a different type of doll toy.
“I didn’t play with Barbies. We had Velvet, the one that grew hair,” Parrella said. “I want my kids to see it now.”
Though everyone seemed to have enjoyed the film, the movie brought back some rather “dark” memories for Ellen Jarrett, whose brother wreaked havoc with her toys growing up. Throughout the course of the movie, the film shows different variations of Barbie, including “Weird” Barbie, who represents all of the Barbies that were dismembered and defaced in households like Jarrett’s across the nation.
“This whole thing has brought back a lot of memories, good and bad,” Jarrett joked.
She also recalled happier memories of the clothes that her mother used to make for her Barbie dolls, including wedding dresses.
Marblehead native Paul Mazonson, who repeatedly referred to himself as “Ken” after the movie, was the lone male in the group, but enjoyed “Barbie” just as much. He said that though he never played with dolls growing up, his sisters had Barbies all over the house and his granddaughters now play with them.
“I thought the whole thing was great… just the whole idea and sense of what it means to be Barbie. I think it was pretty accurately portrayed,” Mazonson said.
The movie is still selling a large amount of tickets three weeks into its release, hitting the $1 billion mark at the box office over the weekend. Monday night at Warwick was packed with filmgoers doing their best Barbie impressions, which employees said they have been seeing since the movie was released.
“Most shows have been sold out, been really hectic,” said Warwick employee Otto Kirley. “It seems like everyone is having fun with it.”
“Basically everyone has been wearing pink, taking pictures in the little box,” employee Lexie Hoffman added.
The group even brought cookies with pink and white frosting to celebrate the occasion.
“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” the three-hour Christopher Nolan film about the creation of the atomic bomb, created a global pop-culture trend when both were released on the same day, which has been dubbed “Barbenheimer.” When asked if the group would go see “Oppenheimer” to complete the “Barbenheimer” experience, the consensus was that five hours of movies in one day was a bit too much.
