When Barbie was released in 2023, it quickly became a phenomenon. It was the top film of the year at the box office, grossing $1.4 billion, and it became Warner Bros.’ highest-grossing film, surpassing both the Dark Knight, Wonder Woman and all the Harry Potters.
The film shattered a centuries-old Hollywood dogma: its success seemed to herald the beginning of a new era in the film industry. Films written and directed by women and centered on female protagonists could attract huge audiences in cinemas around the world.
But, tested by two long strikes and by the impact of streaming on its business model, Hollywood has fallen back on its usual working methods.
Box office receipts are down 17% from July 2023, and studios, frightened by fickle audiences (yes, Twistersno to Fall Guy), are once again questioning the viability of movie theaters. According to a report from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, films released in 2023 had as many girls or women in the lead role as they did in 2010.
PHOTO SINNA NASSERI, THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES
Greta Gerwig wrote the screenplay for Barbie with her husband Noah Baumbach (left). They are seen at the 2024 Academy Awards in Los Angeles.
In Hollywood, the consensus seems to be that Barbie is a singular success, an exception, an enormous feat achieved by two extraordinary talents, the writer-director Greta Gerwig and the star Margot Robbie.
Translation: You won’t be seeing many movies like this anytime soon.
“Zero effect”
” Barbie “Has had zero impact,” says Stacy L. Smith, founder of the Inclusion Initiative, which studies inequality in Hollywood. “The movie is seen as an exception. They’re making the success of the movie about two people, Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig; they haven’t thought about what could change in their methods to create a new, more inclusive path.”
Like most things in this industry, they think, ‘Oh, it’s beautiful, it shines,’ and then they fall back into their rut.
Stacy L. Smith, founder of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative
The filming of Barbie was anything but traditional. Toy company Mattel gave Greta Gerwig—who wrote the film with her husband, Noah Baumbach—free rein to create a narrative based on the doll, which has drawn criticism over the decades. The result: a $150 million film that pokes fun at Barbie and even at Mattel. Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz says he’s often asked, “How could you allow that?”
PHOTO COURTESY OF WARNER BROTHERS
Margot Robbie and her husband Tom Ackerley co-produced Barbie with Robbie Brenner (Mattel Films) and David Heyman (producer of the Harry Potter films).
Warner Bros. went all out to promote the film. The goal: to make it the highest-grossing film based on a commercial female character of all time. It succeeded with a mega-marketing campaign that made Barbie must-have. “The task was to create a Barbie movie that was beyond anything people could imagine,” says Josh Goldstine, the studio’s president of worldwide marketing.
In Hollywood, nothing happens quickly, of course, and making a film often takes years. Mattel currently has 16 film projects, including a remake of Barneywith Daniel Kaluuya, and Polly Pocketstarring Lily Collins as the doll. Lena Dunham, screenwriter of Polly Pockethas given up on making it, telling the magazine Tea New Yorker that she didn’t think she could replicate Greta Gerwig’s success. She described Barbie as “a candy for such a variety of people” and a “perfect and divine incarnation of Greta.”
“We know that not all of these films will be the next Barbiebut we take the same approach,” Kreiz said.
Since the release of BarbieWarner Bros. – now led by co-chairmen Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca – has produced two films starring women and directed by women: The Watchers by Ishana Shyamalan – a failure upon its release in theaters on June 7 – and The Bride by Maggie Gyllenhaal, starring Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale, which will be released in 2025.
PHOTO EVELYN FREJA, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Ishana Shyamalan directed The Watchersco-produced by his father, M. Night Shyamalan.
The studio has three other films in the works starring and directed by women, including one helmed by Olivia Wilde. (In addition, an animated film, Bad Fairieswhich will be released in 2027 and whose main character is a woman, will be directed by Megan Nicole Dong.)
A Barbie II ?
Warner Bros. says it is open to considering a sequel to Barbie if Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie are interested. The duo’s contracts for the original film did not commit them to making a Barbie II.
Mme Abdy and Mr. De Luca, who arrived at Warner after Barbie was authorized by previous CEO Toby Emmerich, however, signed a package deal with Margot Robbie’s production company, LuckyChap, which she runs with her husband, Tom Ackerley, and Josey McNamara. They even gave the trio an original key to the studio, reviving a tradition started by Jack Warner, one of the founders of Warner Bros.
According to Mme Robbie, who produced the film Saltburn from director Emerald Fennell, released in 2023, it remains difficult to convince studios that a film with a woman in the lead role can appeal to all audiences.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to convince these people that men will come to see a movie with a woman in the lead role. Seriously, it seems even harder than convincing them that a female director can make a lot of money at the box office.
Margot Robbie, actress and producer
When his production team asked for a bigger budget for Barbieshe cited the success of Wonder Womanone of the few successful films directed by a woman with a female lead. The studio’s response: the comparison doesn’t hold up, Wonder Woman was a superhero movie.
PHOTO PAUL CHILDS, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley, seen here attending a tennis match at Wimbledon, founded LuckyChap Entertainment in 2014 and have produced several films and television series, including Barbie.
If we are lucky enough to find ourselves in that situation, negotiating the budget for a major release mainstream film directed by a woman, you can be sure that we will give Barbie for example.
Tom Ackerley, Margot Robbie’s husband and business partner in the company LuckyChap
And what about a sequel to Barbie ? “Of course, this opportunity is very exciting, but we have set the bar very high for ourselves and would only commit if we believed we could accomplish something at that level,” Mr. Ackerley and Mr.me Robbie in an email.
This article was originally published in the New York Times.
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