Randall Park warns Hollywood that Barbie wasn’t successful because it was a toy

Shortcomings director Randall Park has some thoughts on Barbie and the sour lesson that the industry might learn from the film’s success. The flick kicked off last month and has since grown to a billion-dollar movie at the box office and breaking industry records.

Speaking with Rolling Stone, Park fears that Mattel and the industry as a whole isn’t seeing what he believes is the real reason Barbie was successful — it was a movie by and about women. This concern isn’t unfounded, as while yes, some luster stems from the toy brand itself, it’s clearly not going to be the exclusive reason the film raked in as much as it has.

Turn your head slightly to the left and you’ll see the absolute behemoth of toy films that Mattel has in the pipeline under its Mattel Films division. Monopoly, Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, Polly Pocket, Hot Wheels, and way more, the division is going all-in on toy-based movies.

We do have some level of concern that this slate will lag behind the lofty expectations Mattel may have following the mega-success that Barbie was. Maybe they’ll have separate expectations, but we can’t be sure that the company won’t look back at its debut film and not expect the same level of success.