Psychic Barbie: Margot Robbie predicted the pink-clad film’s box office would hit $1 billion
This Barbie can see into the future.
Box-office and cultural sensation “Barbie” crossed the $1 billion mark at the box office this past weekend, making it the second 2023 release to hit the milestone after “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” accomplished the feat earlier this year. This also made Greta Gerwig the first solo female director to have a movie reach $1 billion.
Though this achievement may have seemed like a long shot months ago, the film’s star and executive producer, Margot Robbie, always knew the pink-splattered movie would be a mega hit.
Paramount’s ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ and Warner Bros.’ ‘Meg 2: The Trench’ were no match for ‘Barbie’ at the box office.
She had so much faith in the project that she accurately predicted in early pitch meetings that the doll-centered movie reach the exclusive billion-dollar club.
“I think my pitch in the green-light meeting was the studios have prospered so much when they’re brave enough to pair a big idea with a visionary director,” Robbie told Collider earlier this year. “And then I gave a series of examples like, ‘dinosaurs and [Steven] Spielberg,’ that and that, that and that — pretty much naming anything that’s been incredible and made a ton of money for the studios over the years.
“And I was like, ‘And now you’ve got Barbie and Greta Gerwig.’ And I think I told them that it’d make a billion dollars, which maybe I was overselling, but we had a movie to make, okay?!”
As the human heart in a comedy filled with neurotic dolls, the ‘Ugly Betty’ award-winner is ready to take a bolder step toward the big screen with ‘Barbie.’
In its opening weekend, “Barbie” also scored the best domestic debut for a title directed by a woman, surpassing 2019’s “Captain Marvel” ($153 million). The film’s July 24 gross of $26.1 million was a Monday record for Warner Bros., topping the long-held milestone of 2008’s “The Dark Knight.”
The initial hype for “Barbie” was initially bolstered by the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon in which audiences were urged to see the film and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.” Then it shot to new highs because of a relentless marketing campaign by Warner Bros. Since its release, the film has been heralded for its feminist message and its creative world-building.
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