Greta Gerwig is the first women director to enter Hollywood’s billionaire club.
That is the soundbite we constantly heard after her film Barbie crossed that threshold.
It’s accurate. She is the first female director to hit that mark. Gerwig, who has a list of films with strong female characters such as Lady Bird and Little Women seemed a natural choice to take on this project.
Margot Robbie, who serves as one of the films producers, was cast in the lead and this film.
The movie gave little away in the trailers, which is rare and it became the movie event of the year.
As soon as the film was released in July there was a pink invasion that took over cinemas worldwide. I had the opportunity of seeing the film twice. Once for review purposes and once to secure cool Uncle status.
For a solid month going to the theatres, you were seeing mothers and daughters, sisters, friends, guys night outs and almost the entire crowd was in pink. I’m not used to seeing this many people dressed up at a theatre where Chewbacca costumers weren’t involved.
It is rare to see this type of a passion in an audience at a movie theatre and I sincerely hope that Gerwig was able to go to a screening and see this personally and think to herself ‘I did that!’.
Gerwig didn’t create Barbie, but what she did do was take a figure, that was held so dear by millions, and present the movie the character deserved.
In a year where superhero movie fatigue became a clear thing, we all seemed to ignore the fact that Barbie has been a superhero of sorts for years.
Gerwig enhanced the potential of this character and made her accessible to all. This wasn’t a ‘chick flick’ this was thee flick.
Yes, this was one half of the Barbenheimer double bill, but the results showed that Barbie was definitely the A-side from a box office standpoint.
Greta Gerwig is the first women director to enter Hollywood’s billionaire club. The soundbite is accurate but there is a better one….
The biggest box office movie in the world in 2023 was Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.
Greta Gerwig continues to change the game and solidify herself as a director who wants to showcase strong women and her success in 2023 couldn’t be questioned and that is why I find her fascinating.
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