Barbie Producer Attributes Movie's Success to a "Hunger For Originality"

Barbie is currently the highest-grossing film of 2023, and it already has a lot of Oscar buzz. The film was directed and co-written by Greta Gerwig and stars Margot Robbie in the titular role alongside Ryan Gosling's Ken. There are many reasons why the film has become such a phenomenon, and producer David Heyman attributes it to the audience's "hunger for originality." Heyman recently spoke at Deadline's Contender's London event and praised Barbie's originality while addressing the audience.

"One of the reasons the film has done so well is because it's original," Heyman explained. "There's a real hunger for originality. Greta Gerwig is a singular artist, she pushes the boundaries of what's possible in the most collaborative way. The film is fun, thematically rich, and very moving. It was challenging, of course, but when we made it, there was a spirit of fun that permeated the production." 

Last month, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav gave Gerwig a shoutout during the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology conference (via Yahoo!). 

"Greta Gerwig gets the most credit. She's an extraordinary genius," Zaslav said when asked what lessons Warner Bros. was taking from the film reaching number one at the box office, adding that Gerwig "worked very effectively" and "right down to the wire" with the marketing team. "Every division of this company got behind Barbie," Zaslav explained. "Every asset that we have was turned pink." He added, "When we get something we believe in, we can really drive it."

Barbie Has Yet To Surpass Frozen II At Box Office:

Barbie has beaten lots of box office records since it was released in theaters. Greta Gerwig's new film managed to earn $1 billion in only 17 days to become the highest-grossing film directed solely by a woman. However, when you factor in movies co-directed by women, Barbie still isn't number one. The film did beat Captain Marvel, which was co-directed by Anna Boden, to become the highest-grossing live-action movie directed or co-directed by a woman, but there is still one animated film standing in Gerwig's way: Frozen II.

Frozen II was released in 2019 and managed to earn $1,450,026,933 at the worldwide box office. The Disney film was co-directed by Jennifer Lee, who also helmed the first Frozen with Chris Buck. At the time of this writing, Barbie has made $1,434,628,000 worldwide. While Barbie is close to surpassing the animated film, the fact that it's been out for months and is now available to buy on digital could keep it from taking the record.

How many times have you seen Barbie? Tell us in the comments!