(Düsseldorf) With her collection of 18,000 Barbies, the German Bettina Dorfmann was already in the record books. But the release of the eponymous blockbuster has given new impetus to her dolls, which she exhibits in museums.
“As a child, I always played Barbie. When I brought out my dolls for my daughter, she didn’t want them because they were too old-fashioned for her taste. That’s how I started collecting them, ”said the 62-year-old Dusseldorf (west) resident.
She has been living her passion for 28 years now and offers her collection to museums and shopping centers which exhibit them for a few months.
“There may be between 5,000 and 20,000 visitors during the time of the exhibitions, but with the release of the film, I was told that the interest had grown,” she added, without being able to give precise figures.
Demand for her catalogs that list the price of dolls and their clothes has also increased over the past week, she said.
Mrs. Dorfmann, who has already seen the film twice, which she thinks is “great”, also owns a “clinic” of Barbies.
“Repairing a doll can cost between 10 euros and up to 500 or 600 euros if it is a rare model,” she explained.
At the North American box office, the Barbie doll, preceded by an intense marketing campaign, achieved the best launch of the year 2023 with $ 155 million in revenue over the weekend.
