Why Margot Robbie is worth ‘every cent’ of Barbie’s massive $77 million check as the movie edges closer to $2 billion at the box office

Hollywood star Margot Robbie is set to receive a whopping $77 million paycheck for the blockbuster Barbie movie.

To date, the popular comedy, based on the iconic Mattel doll, has grossed A$1.848 billion (US$1.18 billion) at the worldwide box office.

And critics say the 33-year-old Gold Coast-born star deserves every bit of the credit for Barbie’s success.

“There’s no way the historical film could have been as good, popular, or special without seeing Robbie,” Megan O’Keefe writes in the pop culture blog. comma.

O’Keefe cites the fact that not only did Robbie produce the movie, but she was the one who hired the talented Greta Gerwig, 40, to direct.

And the film’s quirky, female-led energy, which helped make it such a popular phenomenon, is a far cry from what studios originally thought they’d get from a Barbie movie.

Talk of a Barbie movie first surfaced in 2009, and over the years since stars like Anne Hathaway and comedian Amy Schumer have tried to get a movie about the favorite toy on Earth.

But it wasn’t until 2019 that Robbie landed the project with her company Lucky Chap Entertainment and convinced Warner Bros. to take over the project. By hiring Gerwig.

Best known as an actress in “Indie” films like Greenberg (2009) and Frances Ha (2012), Gerwig also co-wrote these pictures with her director partner Noah Baumbach.

Gerwig subsequently scored Oscar nominations for her independent film Lady Bird (2017) and the high-profile piece Little Women (2019) starring Saoirse Ronan.

Ruby even told Gerwig, who co-wrote Barbie with Baumbach, that she could choose anyone she wanted for the role. The director replied that she wanted Ruby as Barbie.

Interview by colliderRobbie said she was able to convince executives to greenlight the film after telling them that when studios were brave enough to match a big idea with a visionary director, it worked.

It comes after industry publication Variety reported earlier this week that Barbie is the second-highest-grossing film in the history of Warner Bros., one of Hollywood’s oldest and most popular studios – behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.

The report also says that Barbie is the highest-grossing movie ever directed by a woman.