When Greta Gerwig's Barbie surpassed the $1 billion mark at the global box office, its tireless, unashamedly pink marketing campaign was hailed as a masterclass.

The film – and its build up – was a cultural phenomenon, due in part to its source material, but also thanks to the deep pockets at Warner Bros.

Fans eagerly awaited each of Margot Robbie's Barbie-inspired red carpet outfits, and there was more branded merchandise than you could fit in a Malibu Dream House.

So it is no surprise that Universal's latest blockbuster is getting a marketing rollout that is just as elaborate – and pink – as Barbie.

After decades in development, the film adaptation Wicked, Broadway's second-highest grossing musical, has finally hit theatres, telling the story of the witches of Oz long before Dorothy arrives.

With its stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo at the helm, Wicked will be hoping to defy gravity at the box office.

And because Hollywood loves a sequel, Wicked flew into US theatres on the same day as Gladiator II in the hopes of creating the same lightning in a bottle success as Barbenheimer.

Capturing the Zeitgeist

Graeme Hughes, a business and consumer expert from Griffith University, says when it comes to Wicked's marketing campaign, "there are a lot of parallels with Barbie".

"Barbie-core was a huge phenomenon and a marketing masterclass," Mr Hughes told ABC News.

"We know that it's a multi-generational story, much like Barbie, so there's a lot of different groups that they're trying to tap into."

A dizzying amount of Wicked brand collaborations started hitting shelves more than a month before the film's release.

There are endless fashion collaborations, from clothing to shoes and accessories, multiple makeup collections (including one with Grande's own brand), plus hair-styling tools and nail polishes.

Then there's a sprawling array of toys, including dolls, plushies, playing cards and board games.

Not to mention the more quizzical Wicked-themed food items — from macaroni and cheese to cake mixes, which turn either pink or green when stirred.

Karen Ferry, an executive creative director and regular panellist on ABC's Gruen, says Wicked's campaign blitz is "probably not as big as Barbie" because "Barbie was definitely the biggest one that we've ever seen".

"Barbie, I believe, had removed its licensing fees so it had an unlimited amount of brand partnerships," Ms Ferry told ABC News.

"What Wicked has done is they've followed the importance of brand partnerships, but they've been much more selective in who they've partnered with.

"But it's still very big and it follows that need to try and get a cultural Zeitgeist happening for months before the launch of the film."

'Pink goes good with green'

In Wicked, Grande's Glinda arrives at Shiz University with more trunks full of pink outfits than what Elle Woods hauled to Harvard in Legally Blonde.

Any Broadway fan would tell you Glinda's stage wardrobe isn't just pink – there's the glittering blue gown she wears as she enters stage left via bubble and the yellow sundress she dons for her one short day in the Emerald City.

So why has pink become just as much of Wicked's marketing as green?

"They would realise that green alone wouldn't have been strong enough," Ms Ferry says.

Ms Ferry says that while they're "not exactly the same matching Pantone shades", Wicked is "driving on the fact that people are choosing to wear these colours".

"They're picking colours that people already have, are comfortably wearing in their wardrobes, can match into things they've already got.

"It's not necessarily that they're trying to be Barbie, it's more that they're rolling off the back of the fact that pink is having a moment, as is green."

Wicked's film adaptation is full of elaborate costumes, and Elphaba and Glinda's distinctive outfits don't end when the cameras stop rolling.

"Method dressing," a riff on the concept of method acting, is the latest trend sweeping Hollywood's red carpets.

Coined by Zendaya's stylist Law Roach, method dressing involves actors channelling their on-screen characters through the looks they wear in real life.

Margot Robbie went hard on the concept for her Barbie press tour, with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo channelling their respective witches through pink and green gowns for Wicked's premieres.

To get even more referential, Grande channelled Billie Burke's costume from 1939's The Wizard of Oz for the film's Sydney premiere.

Wicked's costume designer, Paul Tazewell, told Forbes that Burke's costume was the original inspiration for Grande's on-screen wardrobe, saying: "I adopted the same distinguishing pink, which I used throughout the rest of Glinda's colour story."

Ms Ferry says method dressing creates a media story that then allows you to grab headlines.

"So that way if you've been doing your media tour of going to seven different screenings around the world, you've then got seven different days across a few weeks reminding people that your movie is coming out," she says.

Ms Ferry also notes that Grande – who is a natural brunette — has been emulating her character Glinda through her own hair and makeup choices.

"The way she does her makeup, her skin and hair colour, we've seen it change a lot through time," Ms Ferry says.

"But at the moment she's being more Glinda than anything else with her face and her makeup, which is quite interesting because it's more than just [a] dress, it's actually about her physical appearance changing."

Popular, but not perfect

Wicked's marketing blitz hasn't been entirely faultless.

Mattel had to issue an apology after customers noticed the website listed on the packaging of its Wicked dolls led to an adult film website, instead of to WickedMovie.com.

Fans were also divided when Universal threw a private screening of Wicked for the Kardashians a month in advance with the film's stars in attendance – in fact, it was the first time Grande and Erivo had even seen the film together.

Hosted at Kim Kardashian's house, the watch party involved matching pyjamas, themed drinks and a green carpet that transformed Kim's at-home theatre into a cinema foyer.

"To be honest, this is the biggest turn-off for me that the movie has done," one user wrote on Reddit.

"To honour these people with a special screening? With the actresses showing up? Why? I feel the studio hasn't actually understood the story or the message of Wicked."

Mr Hughes says Wicked is "obviously looking to gain traction via multiple mechanisms and they know that [the Kardashians'] following is quite powerful."

"Unfortunately some will be upset by that privilege, but at the same time, the risk versus reward is certainly on Wicked's side with this one," he says.

No matter your opinion of them, Ms Ferry says "the Kardashians are the biggest celebrities in the world".

"They've influenced culture and they've influenced people's lives in a way that we can't even fathom. They changed the identity of how we see women literally, physically, how women change their body. It's all because of the Kardashians.

"I think the exclusivity of allowing them to see it weeks before everyone else was probably not right when […] the rest of the way Wicked has always appeared is accessible."

Defying expectations

As Wicked opens in theatres around the world, the only thing higher than the notes the stars have to hit are the expectations from fans.

"I believe out of Wicked fans, I think Australia's like the second biggest market," Ms Ferry says.

"We have a country filled with people who are just obsessed with musical.

"I think the issue might be, does the movie deliver on the things that people love about the musical?

While Wicked has a well-known narrative, Mr Hughes says Barbie's "blank slate" meant "it could be anything" to audiences.

"It could be whatever you wanted it to be and there's been so many interpretations of what the true storyline of the Barbie movie was," he says. 

"But for Wicked, they probably have a much tighter path to walk.

"It is going to be interesting to see how that resonates with the market."