Beloved Australian star of Barbie Margot Robbie—and her megawatt smile—have arrived at the 81st annual Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles. In a fushcia pink sequinned floor-length gown and a tulle boa by Giorgio Armani Privé, the 33-year-old’s look was a sophisticated reimagining of Mattel’s 1977 doll, Superstar Barbie—and the latest in a long line of Barbie-inspired ensembles.
The Greta Gerwig-directed film which released in July of 2023, and has grossed USD$1.4 billion (AUD$ 2.08 billion) at the international box office, is the highest grossing film in Warner Bros’ history. But today Robbie, who also served as a producer on the movie, said the money is secondary to the way the film made people feel.
“It’s more about what that number represents,” Robbie told Variety on the Golden Globes’ red carpet. “When we’d go to the theatres on opening weekend—and then weekends and weekends and weekends after that—just seeing this sea of people wearing pink or dressed up as Ken, it was just such a wild feeling. I haven’t really seen this communal type of experience at the theatres since I was a kid.”
A film about Barbie had been in the works for nearly a decade. The I, Tonya star and her LuckyChap production partners Josey McNamara, Sophia Kerr and husband Tom Ackerley (wsho together produced the Oscar winning film Promising Young Woman) were very hands-on in rescuing and re-pitching the movie about the famous doll to different studios.
“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?!” said Robbie in an interview with Collider.
She was right. Barbie also officially made Gerwig the highest-grossing female director of all time, surpassing the co-director of Frozen II, Jennifer Lee. According to Variety, Robbie stands to take away over USD$50 million (AUD$74 million) from the project.
Barbie is nominated for nine Golden Globes today, with Oppenheimer garnering eight nods. At next week’s 29th annual Critics Choice Awards Barbie has 18 nominations, the highest in the ceremony’s history.
