Greta Gerwig’s Barbie has taken the box office by storm as people flock to theatres with their best pink-colored outfits. Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in the lead roles, the film managed to make $155 million over the weekend at the domestic box office and $337 million worldwide.
At first, though, it wasn’t easy trying to convince Warner Bros. to go all out on a film about dolls. However, with Margot Robbie’s negotiation skills and a pitch you cannot say no to, the studios just had to take their chance. Comparing Barbie’s future to Jurassic Park, Margot Robbie believed her upcoming film could be as big as one of the most iconic franchises of all time.
Margot Robbie Compares Barbie to Jurassic Park
From Jurassic Park (1993) to Jurassic World: Dominion (2022), the franchise revolving around dinosaurs has collectively brought in $6 billion for the studios, making it one of the most successful franchises of all time. And as far as Margot Robbie is concerned, Barbie could do something similar for the studios in terms of success.
Or at least, that’s what she told WB at a meeting. In an interview with Collider, Robbie opened up about a pitch she made in a meeting with the studios and how she managed to make them give Barbie the green light. She gave several examples of big ideas being made a reality thanks to incredible directors like Steven Spielberg and Jurassic Park. The actress even told the studios that the film could make a billion dollars, admitting to overselling the project.
“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. 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?!”
While Robbie might have felt that she was overselling the film a tad bit too much, it seems that she might have been right on the mark. Taking one good look at how rapidly the numbers are coming in at the box office, it looks like Robbie’s dream of a billion dollars might just be around the corner!
Barbie Was Made for Margot Robbie
It goes without saying that Stereotypical Barbie is one of the best roles of Robbie’s career, if not the best. The way she pulled off those doll-like movements with such ease goes on to say that she was truly made for the role.
As it turns out, not only was Robbie made for the role, the entire film itself was made for her. When asked if she remembered the exact moment the Suicide Squad actress realized that the role should be hers, Robbie very humbly replied,
“I didn’t want whoever our director was going to be – Greta being the first choice, but if she had said no – I didn’t want our director to feel pressured to put me in the role. So I was just really upfront about like, ‘I won’t be offended in the slightest. We could go to anyone. Whatever story you want to tell and whoever you want that to be, I support that. I’ve got skin in the game as a producer, I don’t have skin in the game as an actor, so be free with that choice.’”
While this was absolutely selfless and adorable on her part, Greta Gerwig knew the role had to be played by Robbie and Robbie only. The actress recalled how her name was right beside ‘Barbie’ in the script since the very beginning and Ryan Gosling’s beside Ken.
“And [Gerwig] was like, ‘Shut up, I want to write this for you.’ And I was like, ‘You might feel pressured to say that, but …’ and we did that dance for a while. And then eventually I just accepted that she did want me to play the role, and then she wrote it. She wrote me in and she wrote Ryan in, and it was our names printed in the script from the get-go: ‘Barbie – Margot,’ ‘Ken – Ryan Gosling.’”
Now that we have seen the film, we couldn’t possibly imagine someone else in place of Robbie and Gosling. The two were absolutely incredible in their irrespective roles!
Barbie is currently running in theatres.
Source: Collider
