20231002

Everyone Wants to Be Barbie for Halloween This Year

Barbie is set to be the third-most-popular Halloween costume for adults, after witches and vampires, and among the top 10 for kids, according to The National Retail Federation. It’s never ranked in the top 10 for either age group since the NRF began asking consumers about their holiday plans in 2004. Licensed costumes, off-brand duplicates and DIY interpretations will feature heavily in the $4.1 billion Americans will shell out this year on their outfits, part of the record $12.2 billion they’ll spend on the holiday.

The Halloween takeover, dubbed “Barbieween” by influencers, builds on the economic boost from the Barbie movie’s theatrical run. The Warner Bros Discovery Inc. release is the top-grossing film of the year so far, taking in $1.4 billion globally at the box office and making Greta Gerwig the first woman with sole director credit to have a film pass the $1 billion mark. Fans latched onto the film’s feminist storyline and its originality as a film by and about women and womanhood. It also sparked a slew of partnerships from Airbnb Inc. to Microsoft Corp.’s XBox looking to capitalize on the film’s popularity.

Some revelers will really latch on to the uniformity of Barbieworld. “The whole point is not being ‘not like other girls’,” one TikToker named Hannah said in a video that has been viewed more than 1.1 million times.

EK: Barbie over The Little Mermaid. White America once again. Happy Halloween!