Barbie's coming to streaming sooner than you think

Great news today for anyone who’s been interested in checking out Greta Gerwig’s new Barbie movie—but not so interested that they might do something drastic, like leave the house. As it turns out, just a little bit more patience will solve that particular pickle for you: Variety reports that Margot Robbie’s turn as the endlessly mutable doll icon will arrive for VOD streaming on September 5—less than 7 weeks after it first debuted in theaters.

Seems soon, right? Once upon a time, Hollywood had a pretty hard rule, hammered out with theater owners, that said they’d wait fully 90 days between a movie’s premiere and its release on any kind of home video. But the massively deforming effect of the COVID-19 lockdowns on the movie industry cut the knees off that particular stricture pretty quickly, knocking the theatrical window down to just 45 days—which is what Warner Bros. Discovery is clearing abiding by for Barbie.

What’s wildest about the Barbie situation, though, is that there’s every indication that Gerwig’s movie might still be at or near the top of the box office by the time its streaming deadline rolls around: This past weekend, its fourth in general release, saw Barbie bring in $33 million at the domestic box office, making it the winner for the weekend—and easily beating out the sole big opening feature, The Last Voyage Of The Demeter, which ran aground on a big ol’ rock of audience indifference. WBD is presumably hoping that this weekend’s Blue Beetle will gently take the crown off the plastic queen, but there’s every indication that Barbie might continue to roll along in a dominant position for the rest of August. Given how much ink has been spilled on the way “Barbenheimer” has revitalized the theater industry this summer, we can’t imagine owners will be happy to see her depart for Streaming Land quite so soon—even if we half suspect she’ll be back in theaters once Oscar season starts rolling around in a couple of months.