Margot Robbie has admitted she was as stunned as anyone when Barbie hit the global box office.
Greta Gerwig’s 1959 comedy about the Mattel Barbie doll grossed an incredible $1.4 billion, holding its own against Christopher Nolan’s biopic Oppenheimer.
Margot, the producer and star of the popular flick, told Variety she was shocked by the online cultural impact the films had in their opening weekend.
“The fact that people said, ‘Oh, look at Oppenheimer first, then Barbie.’ I said, ‘See? People like everything.” “People are weird,” she said.
It turns out that the hilarious memes about Barbie fighting the “Father of the Atomic Bomb,” J. Robert Oppenheimer, are all thanks to Margot.
Margot Robbie has admitted she was as stunned as anyone when Barbie hit the global box office
In an interview for Variety’s Actors on Actors with Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy, Margot revealed that she was the mastermind behind the double cast called Barbenheimer.
The Australian actor recalled the moment Oppenheimer producer Chuck Rove called her and said, “I think you should reschedule” after the two films were scheduled to hit theaters on July 21.
“And I was like, ‘We’re not postponing our date. If you’re afraid of competing against us, then you’ll postpone your date,” Margot explained.
Greta Gerwig’s 1959 comedy about the Mattel Barbie doll grossed an incredible $1.4 billion, holding its own against Christopher Nolan’s biopic Oppenheimer
“And he says, ‘We’re not postponing our date. I just think it would be better if you moved.’ And I thought, ‘We’re not moving!’ I think that’s actually a really great pairing. It’s a perfect double billing, Oppenheimer and Barbie.”
Irish actor Cillian, 47, told Robbie: “It was a good instinct.”
The odd pairing obviously worked, considering the sheer amount of hilarious memes that went viral leading up to the two films’ release.
Margot, the producer and star of the popular flick, told Variety she was shocked by the online cultural impact the films had in their opening weekend
It turns out that the hilarious memes about Barbie fighting the “Father of the Atomic Bomb,” J. Robert Oppenheimer, are all thanks to Margot
“People are so smart. People kept asking me, “So does every marketing department talk to each other?” And I thought, “No, that’s the world that does that! That’s not part of the marketing campaign,” Margot said.
Cillian replied: “And I think it happened because both films were good.” Actually there was a huge variety of things in the cinema this summer and I think it just created a connection that you or I, the Studios or anyone else could never have predicted.’
Budgeted at $145 million, Barbie grossed a staggering $1.4 billion at the global box office and earned a critic score of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Meanwhile, Oppenheimer grossed $953.2 million at the global box office on a budget of $100 million and earned a 93% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.