Barbie's IMAX Re-Release Runtime Is Longer Than The Original - But Why?

"Barbie" is returning to theaters, probably because it really underperformed at the box office the first time around ... but why is the run-time even longer?

In late August, news broke that Greta Gerwig's take on "Barbie" would screen in IMAX for the first time (when it was first released, most IMAX theaters were taken up with showings of Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer," which was shot directly for the cinematic medium). Not only that, but fans learned that there would be a post-credits scene this time around. Now, AMC revealed that the run-time of this new version of "Barbie" is six minutes longer than the original theatrical cut.

So what could this possibly mean? Is there another scene where Barbie (Margot Robbie) experiences how hard life is outside of Barbie World? Does Ken (Ryan Gosling) learn more about the theory behind patriarchy, or lack thereof? Does America Ferrera's Gloria get an even longer monologue about the contradictions of femininity? (That one feels unlikely.) We don't know what this six-minute extension could mean, but it's definitely going to be exciting to see what Gerwig and her team chose to add back into the film.

No, but seriously: "Barbie" isn't just the biggest movie of 2023 at this point, but it's easily one of the most popular and successful movies in recent memory. After the project initially hit a handful of stumbling blocks — a version written by Diablo Cody fell through, and Amy Schumer left a different iteration of the project — Margot Robbie spearheaded the movie everybody now loves, got Greta Gerwig on board, and 2023's "Barbie" finally came to fruition.

The movie was, to put it mildly, an immediate hit. Alongside "Oppenheimer" — in a phenomenon dubbed "Barbenheimer — "Barbie" released on July 21, 2023 to immediate success, and if we listed every single one of its major box office accomplishments here, we'd run out of room pretty quickly. Now, word is spreading that the movie is being put forth for several Oscars — specifically, for its script and for Ryan Gosling's performance — and it's not out of the question of Gerwig, who became the first female director to spearhead a movie that crossed the billion-dollar mark, could get a nod for her direction as well.

In any case, the re-release of "Barbie" will offer even more of the movie that became a record-shattering accomplishment in just a matter of weeks. "Barbie" in IMAX hits theaters on September 22, 2023, and will run for one week.