Barbie Crossing Major Global Box Office Milestone

Barbie is set to cruise past another box office milestone. The mega-hit will fly by $700 million after Sunday. It’s been a dynamite moment for movie theaters this year long much hand-wringing about the state of the theatrical industry. Yesterday saw Greta Gerwig’s pink-hued movie pass $630 million. As the buzz continues to grow around Barbie, reaching that $700 million number should be well-within reach. Warner Bros. Discovery has been busy with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, but this project shows the potential of theater when creatives are allowed to realize their vision. 

Some observers have worried that dragging out the writers and actors strikes would squander the momentum gained by films like Barbie and Oppenheimer. Both have absolutely blown past projections for this weekend. However, with Sony Pictures pushing multiple movies back yesterday, people are concerned about this fall’s release schedule. Could big movies like The Marvels or Dune Part II be in danger of moving? Maybe so. That would be a shame if the studios don’t realize what gold they have in front of them until its too late.

Ryan Gosling Shines As Ken

Gerwig knew that she wanted Ryan Gosling as Ken from the word go. It feels like audiences are beyond happy with that choice. His work in Drive and La La Land might impress. But, in a conversation with the Smartless podcast the director admitted that his SNL appearances really sealed the deal. 

“You know those actors you can… just sort of feel that they know what’s funny, and I always felt that about him,” Gerwig explained. “And then I’m a big fan of all of his SNLs, I always thought he was great on SNL… He did ‘Guy That Just Got a Boat’ on ‘Weekend Update,’ and it’s so good.”

“We actually, in writing it, cast Ryan, like we wrote his name into the script and everything… and [Gosling’s name] was everywhere,” Gerwig told the show. “And then when we handed them the script, the studio was like ‘Oh, it’s so wonderful that you know Ryan.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know Ryan. I’ve never met Ryan, I have no idea.’”

Will There Be A Barbie Sequel?

In a recent move, Mattel made the decision to re-up it’s partnership with Warner Bros. While that extends to toys mostly, don’t sleep on the fact that the company is probably thinking about Barbie 2 already. Variety spoke to Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz about the prospect and he sounded like he was down.

“Barbie, as a brand, has many different iterations. The product lines of Barbie is a very broad brand. In addition to the main Barbie figure, she has family, she has a lot of elements around in her universe,” Kreiz shared. “It’s a very rich universe… It’s a very broad and very elastic brand, in terms of opportunities.”

“At the outset, we’re not saying, ‘Okay, let’s think already about movie two and three.’ Let’s get the first one right and make that a success,” he would add. “And if you do that, opportunities open up very quickly, once you establish the first movie as a successful representation of a franchise on the big screen.”

Are you going back for more Barbie this weekend? Let us know down in the comments!