It's a Barbie world, and we're all just living in it.
After just two weeks in theaters, Greta Gerwig's phenomenally successful movie looks set to pass $1 billion at the worldwide box office over the weekend.
The comedy/satire shot past $900 million on Thursday, and analysts believe it will earn Kenough (sorry) to hit the $1 billion milestone by close of business on Sunday.
Star Margot Robbie is also a producer on the film, and actually assured Warner Bros. execs that Barbie was a lock to make $1 billion during a pitch meeting before the movie was officially greenlit.
“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 said in a recent interview with Collider. “And then I gave a series of examples like, ‘dinosaurs and [Steven] Spielberg’ – 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?”
Barbie's incredible box office performance has led to Mattel announcing/fast-tracking a number of toy-based projects, including Lena Dunham's live-action Polly Pocket movie starring Lily Collins.
From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig (Little Women, Lady Bird) comes Barbie, which also stars America Ferrera (End of Watch, the How to Train Your Dragon films), Kate McKinnon (Bombshell, Yesterday), Issa Rae (The Photograph, Insecure), Rhea Perlman (I’ll See You in My Dreams, Matilda), and Will Ferrell (the Anchorman films, Talladega Nights), and more.
Gerwig directs from a screenplay she penned alongside Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story, The Squid and the Whale), based on the iconic fashion dolls by Mattel.
The film’s producers are Oscar nominee David Heyman (Marriage Story, Gravity), Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie Brenner, with Gerwig, Baumbach, Ynon Kreiz, Richard Dickson, Michael Sharp, Josey McNamara, Courtenay Valenti, Toby Emmerich and Cate Adams serving as executive producers.