Barbie came out this week, and while we don’t have final weekend numbers yet, we do know that it made seventy million dollars on its opening day, breaking all of this year’s records. Even in Italy, almost three hundred thousand tickets were sold on the first day. Moreover, the film is also appreciated: by the public, who gave it an average rating of 7.8, and by critics (80 meta points) on IMDb. Those who have seen it say that it is a brilliant, funny film that can talk about important issues with self-irony.
Margot Robbie, the lead actress who plays the world’s most famous doll going through an identity crisis, is convinced the film could make a big splash.
I think my point at the greenlight meeting was that studios thrive when they are brave enough to pair a great idea with a visionary director. And then I gave some examples like “Dinosaurs and (Steven) Spielberg” – basically I named everything that was awesome and made the studios a lot of money over the years. And I said to myself, “And now there’s Barbie and Greta Gerwig.” I think I told them it would make a billion dollars, and maybe I exaggerated, but we had to make a movie, okay?
Second Deadline reports that the film could gross $130 million in its opening weekend, which would be its best result since Avatar: The Way of Water.
By the way: the film has parallel universes, do you think it can be considered science fiction?
Update: The opening weekend projection of 130 million turned out to be too conservative: the film grossed over 160 million in the US market and 356 million worldwide. A third of the billion Robbie expected is already in the coffers in just one weekend.