Yes, we are still basking in the glory and pure brilliance of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie film.
And it seems we're not alone. As it turns out, all of the insanely smart marketing surrounding the film - from creating a real-life Barbie dream house in Malibu, to film lead Margot Robbie’s pitch-perfect Barbie-inspired looks for the press run - has paid off. Literally.
In the two weeks since its release, Barbie has become the highest-grossing movie directed by a woman *ever*. Like, ever ever. And Margot Robbie (who starred in and brought the summer's hottest film to the screen via her production company) is set to make roughly $50 million (£39m) in salary and box office bonuses, according to Yahoo Finance.
We bow down.
Barbie has now surpassed an astonishing $526.3 million at the domestic box office since it opened a month ago, as well as $657.6 million at the international box office. That comes out to $1.18 billion (£1.0bn) globally. The epic film is now the second highest-grossing release in the history of Warner Bros., just behind “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.” Greta and Margot's creation has also pipped Frozen II, which was co-directed by Jennifer Lee, to the highest-grossing film ever from a female director.
In comparison, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer - which opened the same day as Barbie, leading many to do a double ‘Barbieheimer’ screening - has made $400million (£350 million) at the box office worldwide, less than half of its fuschia pink counterpart.
The fact that a solo female director (aka Greta) has been able to gross £1billion with a film that isn’t a superhero movie or a needlessly long alien film (sorry), shows that original storytelling for women is in hot demand. Hollywood: if you make it, we will consume it. And put your trust in more female directors, they know what they’re doing.
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