Margot Robbie, star and producer of Barbie, made a huge prediction to studios during a pitch meeting for the film, telling them that it would make $1 billion.
Robbie told Collider she noted the success of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park as she made her pitch to Mattel and Warner Bros. for Barbie, which is now in cinemas.
“I think my pitch in the green-light meeting was the studios have prospered so much when they’re brave enough to pair a big idea with a visionary director,” Robbie said in the Collider interview, which was published this week but conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike.
“And then I gave a series of examples like, ‘dinosaurs and [Steven] Spielberg,’ that and that, that and that – pretty much naming anything that’s been incredible and made a ton of money for the studios over the years,” she continued. “And I was like, ‘And now you’ve got Barbie and Greta Gerwig.’”
Robbie then made her massive forecast about the film, which had a $145 million budget.
“I think I told them that it’d make a billion dollars, which maybe I was overselling, but we had a movie to make, okay?!” she said.
Barbie ― part of the heavily memed “Barbenheimer” weekend ― is set to make up to $110 million in the North American box office during its opening weekend, Variety reported.
The film is expected to take the No. 1 spot of the weekend over Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which is aiming to make $50 million, according to Variety.
AMC Theatres said that 40,000 of its loyalty program members bought tickets to watch both films on the same day.
Erik Davis, managing director at ticketing company Fandango, told CNBC that this weekend is “the most anticipated” one of the year.
“Ever since we knew that these two films were going to open on the same weekend there’s just been instantly a pop culture phenomenon,” Davis said.