Did the ‘Barbie’ Movie Really Cause a Global Run on Pink Paint?

By: Nina He

Everyone knows that Barbies are pink. In fact, pink enough to cause a whole global run on the color.

The new Barbie movie coming out on July 17th is said to have used a whole shade of pink paint.

“The world ran out of pink,” said production designer Sarah Greenwood. She said Earth’making of the giant Barbieland at Warner Bros. Studio in Leavesden, England, had caused the world to lose an entire type of pink paint.

The makers of the Barbie movie bought the bright shade from a company called Rosco, which is known to supply the entertainment world with filters, paint, and other supplies that are needed in the making of a movie or TV show.

Roso’s vice president, Lauren Proud, said that “they had used as much paint as we had.” But there wasn’t much paint to begin with in the start of the making of the movie in 2022.

Rosco was still going through Covid-related supply problems and is still recovering from the 2021 Texas time freeze that damaged crucial raw materials.

Henry Cowen, the national sales manager for Rosoc’s Live entertainment division, said in a 2022 interview with the Guild of Scenic Artists that the freeze caused millions of gallons of supplies to be lost, as well as the supplies needed to restock it.

Proud said that even though there were challenges, Rosco did their best to deliver the paint.

“There was this shortage, and then we gave them everything we could—I don’t know [if] they can claim credit,” Proud said, before adding, “They did clean us out on the paint.”

Director Greta Gerwig said her goal was “authentic artificiality” on all aspects of the set, saying that “maintaining the ‘kid-ness’ was paramount.”

“I wanted the pinks to be very bright, and everything to be almost too much,” said Gerwig.

And Gerwig was right. In some of the pictures of the movie, we can see that everything is pink!!! Barbie’s house, the outfits, the cars—basically everything that could be pink and still look natural was pink!

We don’t know how pink and how much paint the Barbie movie will use, but viewers can find out on July 17th, when the movie will be out in theaters.