If you haven't heard, the Barbie movie is a hit. The Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling-led movie set box office records in its opening weekend; plus, alongside Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, it created the cultural event known as Barbenheimer. But Barbie's influence has not just had an impact on movie theaters, it's found its way into the Netflix Top 10.
Not the Barbie movie specifically, but rather Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse.
The children's animated series premiered in 2012 and ran for eight seasons and 83 episodes. It follows Barbie (voiced by Kate Higgins), Ken (Sean Hankinson) and more of Barbie's friends on misadventures in and outside of Barbie's Dreamhouse. Twelve of those 83 episodes are currently streaming on Netflix and as of Tuesday, July 25, occupy the tenth spot in the top trending TV shows in the US.
While we don't have specific viewing numbers for Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse, in the US it is beating shows like Seinfeld, Queen Charlotte, The Diplomat and recent HBO arrival Insecure (which actually has a Barbie connection with Issa Rae, who appeared in both) for July 25.
Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse is available to stream on Netflix in the UK, but the animated series has not made its way into the daily top 10 of UK Netflix subscribers. Will it start to pop up there as well, or is Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse's spike in popularity a US outlier? And for how long?
Even before this current surge of Netflix viewership for Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse, fans of the show were making it known that they have just as much (if not more in some cases) passion for the animated series as they do for the critically acclaimed movie from writer/director Greta Gerwig.
so the Barbie movie isn’t a two hour long episode of Life in the Dreamhouse????July 24, 2023
As someone who has dedicated the last year of their life to watching every single #Barbie animated film, I can say that the only piece of animated barbie media that will enhance your viewing experience of Barbie (2023) is the Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse series. pic.twitter.com/RSGl1ETHPtJuly 23, 2023
life in the dreamhouse ken meeting movie ken #Barbie pic.twitter.com/YxZ5VPK234July 25, 2023
my bf is barbie life in the dreamhouse ken and NOT barbie 2023 ken because he would NEVER be mean to me and take my dreamhouseJuly 23, 2023
Seems I may watch the Barbie movie, but I have zero expectation that it will reach the quality of Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse pic.twitter.com/TsTdLu754gJuly 25, 2023
I am not worried the Barbie movie is too “woke.” I am worried it will not live up to the high expectations set by the Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse animated series.July 23, 2023
Considering that the Barbie movie is a Warner Bros. Pictures title and as such is almost definitely going to be made available to stream first on Max, Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse may be the only way that Netflix can latch onto some of the Barbie mania that is currently going on.
Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse is streaming exclusively on Netflix, so you must be a Netflix subscriber if you want to check it out. A Netflix subscription plan will also get you access to what we think are the best TV shows on Netflix right now.
