‘Barbie’ Tops $1 Billion at the Box Office Transcript

Barbie has hit the billion dollar mark at the box office. Warner Brothers calls its watershed moment. It’s also a big moment for Director Greta Gerwig. She becomes the first woman to hit the milestone and just 17 days after the film was released. Joining us now to discuss, Yahoo Finances, Alexandra Canal. Hey Ally.

Hey Barbie. Hey guys. If you saw the movie, you get the reference there. But yes, there are quite a few milestones that were reached here. We only have 28 male directors to have the sole credit for those $1 billion films and now just one female director for that sole credit, which is Greta Gerwig. There have been a few women that have had co-directing titles to have movies reach the $1 billion club, but it’s pretty rare. There’s only about 50 films out there, and we had two so far this year, Barbie being the second, the first being the Super Mario Brothers movie, which was produced by NBC Universal.

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So I think this is a really big moment for Warner Brothers discovery because it’s the first film that they’ve seen reach 1 billion since their merger of last year. Clearly, they’re all in on Barbie. Even their earnings was pink when they released it last week. So this is, I think, going to fundamentally change the types of movies that are produced at the box office because for a long time, really the story was these action films, these male-driven films, they are the ones that are safe bets at the box office. And even for Barbie, it didn’t come with a sequel, there was still hesitation in the leadership ranks if this was going to perform and do well. Clearly this is bucking that trend, so I think we’re going to see a lot more female-driven stories and obviously a lot more confidence in the female director as well.

At the same time, what’s on the docket? In other words, there’s so much hype around this movie, it feels like in terms of repeatable other hits, whether it’s by women or anyone that’s on tap for Warner Brothers. In other words, if you look at what’s coming up, are there other non-franchise non-action movies that people are as excited? Nothing even comes close, right?

Not really, especially-

I mean with the strike, yes, but even so.

Even so, I think after the summer, the fall is pretty chill for the most part. There’s nothing crazy coming out that I think is capturing attention. And you also have to remember the promotion around this movie, the marketing spend was astronomical, was insane, and I think that added to the hype as well. And then obviously you mentioned the strike. I think that points to 2024, there’s going to be a bit of risk there, especially for a lot of these theatrical giants. So you have to wonder, once the strike ends, whenever that will be, hopefully soon, what those types of conversations are going to be like when it comes to really pinning down the future theatrical slate in 2024 and even beyond, in 2025 and 2026. So I think that’s going to be the top story to watch. But again, the box office is in a state of disarray right now with these strikes.

Yeah, I’m looking at what’s coming up. We got another Saw. Nobody asked for that one.

The sequel, right? [inaudible 00:03:07].

We got another Aquaman. We got the Marvels. Is there another Hunger Games? Oh, that’s right, the prequel.

The prequel.

It’s like, oh, come on.

Because those are the safe bets for theaters. But I think clearly audiences are showing they want fresh, original content. They want new ideas, and so I think studios are going to have to be forced to listen to that at some point.

It’s just nothing to be excited about.

I know.

I want to see the Marvels, but I’m not like-

The Marvels, yeah.

… wow.

I know. After the past couple weeks, it’s such a letdown after Barbenheimer.

It just goes to show how well executed of a holistic omnichannel, omni approach type of plan this was for Mattel, for Warner Brothers to be able to bring this to life that you had people dressing up to go see the movie.

Dressing up to…

You have all of us buying-

[inaudible 00:03:54] dressed up.

I bought a mug.

I dressed up too. I was in pink.

I bought a Kenough mug.

All right. We got to leave it there, guys.