Barbie Director Should Be DC’s New Weapon After Movie Hits $1 Billion

Written By Kieran Bugg and Mikey Sutton • Editor-in-Chief • Owner

Barbie director Greta Gerwig should be DC Studios’ new weapon after her film will rake in $1 billion in two weeks. Aside from non-canon movies like Matt Reeves’ The Batman in 2022 and Todd Phillips’ Joker in 2019, DC experienced a stream of flops the past few years.

Certainly, James Gunn has excited a number of his MCU followers for his upcoming slate. To others, his DC track record thus far doesn’t inspire that much confidence. His DC debut, 2021’s The Suicide Squad, tanked hard. It earning only $168 million global with a budget of $185 million. Still, Gunn’s defenders will note the pandemic and HBO Max’s simultaneous streaming punched a hole in its starboard.

On the other hand, The Suicide Squad only received a B+ on CinemaScore, which is not a positive sign from moviegoers. It’s the same rating that fellow DC bomb Black Adam acquired.

Gerwig’s critical and commercial success with Barbie should be seriously considered at DC Studios. First of all, Gerwig just gave Margot Robbie her first solo smash. Aside from 2016’s ensemble piece Suicide Squad, Robbie’s Harley Quinn hasn’t fulfilled her potential as far as tickets sold are concerned.

Gerwig could change all that.

Barbie Director Should Be DC’s New Weapon After Movie Hits $1 Billion

After all, Gerwig didn’t just direct Barbie; she co-wrote it as well with her partner Noah Baumbach. Many have praised Barbie for its wit, heart, and creativity, the ingredients needed for another, better Robbie-led Birds of Prey film set in the DCU.

Gerwig has proven that collaborating with Robbie can lead to blockbuster results. In fact, Barbie could end up being 2023’s biggest hit.

In addition, Gal Gadot has stated that she’s assisting in the development of Wonder Woman 3. Original director Patty Jenkins is gone. Gerwig could give that franchise new life after the disappointing Wonder Woman 1984.

Insiders told us to keep an eye out for Gerwig for either Wonder Woman or Birds of Prey movies. Granted, that doesn’t mean Gerwig will land a job at DC Studios. However, she is open to directing a superhero feature.

Thus, the interest is there.

And if they connect, the outcome could be explosive.

2023 has been jam-packed with multiple highly anticipated movies that have already been and gone. Nonetheless, only one of them has so far managed to reach the $1 billion milestone at the global box office.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie defied its mixed reviews from critics and became an instant smash among general audiences. This is due to stellar voice performances, a solid script, plenty of nostalgia and, of course, Jack Black’s original song “Peaches.” The animated adventure quickly became the 15th highest grossing movie of all time.

But Barbie will soon cross that same mark in the coming days after just two weeks. Barbie has been the year’s most talked about and celebrated theatrical release.

Barbie Director Should Be DC’s New Weapon After Movie Hits $1 Billion

The movie currently boasts an impressive critics’ score of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. Furthermore, it has over 394,000 five star reviews on Letterboxd.

Moreover, the various online memes surrounding Barbie’s shared release date with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer undoubtedly boosted interest in both.

So it’s no surprise that the film will inevitably make over $1 billion worldwide. We predicted that on July 22. Robbie also acted as a producer and even assured Warner Bros. executives that it was guaranteed to gross $1 billion.

She was right.

Looking back on a pitch meeting, Robbie explained:

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, and then I gave a series of examples like, ‘dinosaurs and Steven Spielberg’ – pretty much naming anything that’s been incredible and made a ton of money for the studios over the years. And I was like, ‘And now you’ve got Barbie and Greta Gerwig.’ And 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?

If Gerwig and Robbie want another $1 billion movie, DC Studios might have the key.