Why Margot Robbie ‘is worth every cent’ of her whopping $77m Barbie pay check as film edges closer to making $2b at the box office

Hollywood superstar Margot Robbie is set to collect a whopping $77million from her mega-hit Barbie movie.

So far the smash hit comedy, based on the famed Mattel doll, has raked in an astonishing AU$1.848billion (US$1.18billion) at the box office globally.

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

‘There’s no way the history-making film would have been as good, as popular, or as idiosyncratic without Robbie’s vision,’ writes Meghan O’Keefe for pop culture blog Decider.

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

So far the smash hit comedy, based on the famed Mattel doll, has raked in an astonishing AU$1.848billion (US$1.18billion) at the box office globally 

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

Talk of a Barbie movie first emerged in 2009, and over the years since stars like Anne Hathaway and comedian Amy Schumer tried to get a movie of the toy favourite off the ground.

But it was not until 2019 when Robbie got a hold of the project with her company, Lucky Chap Entertainment and convinced Warner Bros. to hire Gerwig.

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

Gerwig later scored Oscar nominations for her indie hit Lady Bird (2017) and the high-profile period piece Little Women (2019) starring Saoirse Ronan.

It was Robbie who not only produced the film, but also hired the talented Greta Gerwig, best known for Little Women 

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

Robbie even told Gerwig, who co-wrote Barbie with Baumbach, she could cast any one she wanted in the role. The director replied she wanted Robbie as Barbie.

Interviewed in Collider, Margot said she was able to convince executives to green light the movie after she told them that when ever studios were brave enough to match a big idea with a visionary director, they prospered.

It comes after industry trade paper 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 famous studios – just behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.

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