Barbie’s ‘humanity’ is what made the movie a hit, Mattel execs say. ‘We elevated Barbie beyond a doll to an idea.’

The ticket sales speak for themself: Worldwide, the movie’s box office haul is approaching $1.5 billion, making it one of the biggest films of the year and the highest-grossing global release in Warner Bros. history. Clearly I wasn’t the only one moved by the film.

Yesterday, during a conversation with Fortune’s Michal Lev-Ram at the Most Powerful Women Summit, Robbie Brenner, president of Mattel Films, and Lisa McKnight, executive vice president and chief brand officer of Mattel, Inc., highlighted what made the film so resonate. “It’s a story about humanity,” McKnight said. “We elevated Barbie beyond a doll to an idea.”

It helps that Barbie is an iconic toy with decades of cultural cache, of course, and that Warner Bros. poured an estimated $150 million into the marketing. But as McKnight and Brenner noted, it mostly worked due to the creative team—namely, writer/director Greta Gerwig and actress/producer Margot Robbie—who helped bring it to life and make it a unique story and moviegoing experience. 

Of the many fascinating aspects of the Barbie movie—The outfits! The set design! The practical effects!—one I’ve been stuck on is how much fun Gerwig was able to have, poking fun not just at mansplain-ations of The Godfather and bad dates, but at Mattel itself. Though McKnight noted the company was “very involved” in the creative process, the movie didn’t feel like one long ad for the toy. Provocative, inspiring, and authentic were some of the words Brenner used to describe the film.

“It’s not about selling toys, it’s about telling the best stories,” Brenner said. “If you’re not making something that feels out of the box and different and sticky, then you have no business making content.”

Since Barbie’s resounding success, there’s been plenty of chatter about which toy movie studios might try to turn into their next billion-dollar hit, and films based on Polly Pocket, Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, and Hot Wheels are already in the works. 

Brenner has some advice for Lena Dunham, Vin Diesel, and JJ Abrams, who are attached to those films—as well as anyone else looking to create the next cultural touch point. “When you take those big swings, that’s when life rewards you,” she said.

Alicia Adamczyk
alicia.adamczyk@fortune.com
@AliciaAdamczyk

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to clarify Mattel’s role in the film production.

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PARTING WORDS

“We have unprecedented wealth, historic wealth that’s coming into our hands, and so our ability to put that money to work is really going to make a huge difference.”

—Investor and Portfolia founder Trish Costello at Fortune's Most Powerful Women conference yesterday, speaking about the growing number of women now investing and planning financially