A lack of cultural nostalgia attached to the toy and wariness of the film's feminist messaging may have kept the Korean audience away from the Hollywood mega-hit: "There is no real fan base for 'Barbie' in Korea.”
To be fair I generally feel this way about topics I'm actually knowledgeable on. I know the media tries to get it right and in this case it doesn't seem intentional. But it happens far too often and why would I assume it only happens on subjects I'm familiar with?