Barbie made the box office its personal dream house when it debuted to a staggering $162 million over the weekend. The Greta Gerwig-directed project set an opening weekend record for a female director and with the movie continuing to kill it financially, talks of a sequel are inevitable but Gerwig says she hasn’t thought that far ahead yet.
During a chat with The New York Times, via Variety, Gerwig was asked if Barbie was the first entry of a franchise or if it served as a standalone film with a complete ending. The director wouldn’t answer definitively but she did admit that she hasn’t given any recent thought about doing a sequel just yet. Here is what Gerwig had to say:
“At this moment, it’s all I’ve got. I feel like that at the end of every movie, like I’ll never have another idea and everything I’ve ever wanted to do, I did. I wouldn’t want to squash anybody else’s dream but for me, at this moment, I’m at totally zero.”
Given Barbie’s massive financial success, it comes as no surprise that Gerwig would be asked about a sequel. Following an already impressive opening weekend, the film grossed $26.1 million on Monday. The Monday total was a record for Warner Bros., topping the $26 million earned by The Dark Knight on its first Monday 15 years ago.
Barbie continued to show box office power on Tuesday with an estimated gross of $26 million, bringing its domestic total to $214.1 million in just five days of release. Worldwide, Barbie has cleared $400 million and is looking at a potential $1 billion global earner when it’s all said and done.
Coming from Gerwig and a script she co-wrote with her partner Noah Baumbach, Barbie follows the titular character (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) as they go on a journey of self-discovery out of Barbieland and into the real world. In addition to Robbie and Gosling, the film also stars America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Simu Liu, and Will Ferrell, among others.
Barbie is now playing in theaters nationwide.
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Hello! My name is Gaius Bolling: movie, TV, and pop culture junkie! The industry has been in my veins since I was a kid and I have carried that on through adulthood. I attended Los Angeles Film Academy and participated in their screenwriting and editing program. From there, I have learned to hone my skills in the world of entertainment journalism. Some of my favorite genres include horror, action, and drama and I hope to share my love of all of this with you.