Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling starrer fantasy comedy-drama film ‘Barbie’ has now crossed USD 1 Billon ( £785 million) globally in just its third weekend.
This marks the epitome of Margot Robbie’s career as an actor, making it her highest-rated movie till date.
Taking to Instagram, the makers announced the news with a special post which they captioned,
“Here’s to our incredible Barbies and Kens from all around the world for making our Barbie dreams come true. We’re excited to share that #BarbieTheMovie has hit $1 Billion at the Global Box Office.”
According to Variety, a US-based media house, this makes director Greta Gerwig the first-ever solo female filmmaker with a billion-dollar film.
Three other billion-dollar blockbusters were co-directed by women, including ‘Frozen’ and ‘Frozen 2’ both co-directed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck, as well as ‘Captain Marvel’, co-directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, as per Variety.
‘Barbie’ hit the milestone just after 17 days of its release, becoming the fastest Warner Bros. release) to join the USD 1 billion club. Earlier the fantasy drama film ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2’ held that record at 19 days.
It’s only the second blockbuster this year and the sixth of the pandemic era to cross USD 1 billion, following ‘Spider-Man No Way Home,’ ‘Top Gun Maverick,’ ‘Jurassic World Dominion’ and ‘Avatar The Way of Water,’ reported Variety.
The ‘Barbie’ movie is directed by Greta Gerwig and stars Margot Robbie as the famous doll and Ryan Gosling as her boyfriend Ken.
Following the immense publicity and popularity the movie received before its release, one might wonder if it was solely for the concept of ‘Barbie’ or just the added factor of casting a highly-prominent cast.
Not to mention the film had a number of partnerships with popular brands such as Burger King, Crocs and Forever 21.
It is also noteworthy to consider than maybe some people like myself, only saw the film for the hype and would probably give it an 8.5 at most, so what actually made it so popular?
Hype culture, though not a determined term, is sub-consciously, ever-growing and if every single person watches a movie just for the sake of it, wouldn’t it make every movie a billion dollar deal? maybe
As per Variety, Greta’s directorial ‘Barbie ‘ raked in USD 155 million in its opening weekend, marking the biggest debut ever for a film directed by a woman.
‘Barbie’ cost USD 145 million, not including a marketing campaign that propelled the movie into the mainstream long before it landed in theatres. Gerwig, the Oscar-nominated director of ‘Lady Bird’ and ‘Little Women’, co-wrote the film’s screenplay with Noah Baumbach.