Before Margot Robbie took on the leading role of Stereotypical Barbie in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie film, she was already on board the project as a producer. And while acting alone would’ve seen her earn a pretty penny, her producer credit paycheck hits a staggering figure, according to Variety reports.
As three sources with insider knowledge of the deal revealed to the outlet, Robbie is set to make roughly $50 million as part of her salary and box office bonuses for her work. The production company LuckyChap Entertainment she co-founded in 2014 with her husband Tom Ackerley, Josey McNamara and Sophia Kerr, acquired rights to the Barbie IP years before the film ultimately came out.
Speaking to Vogue about the initial casting for the film, Robbie discussed how starring in the film wasn’t something that initially crossed her mind. “It wasn’t that I ever wanted to play Barbie or dreamt of being Barbie, or anything like that,” she said. “This is going to sound stupid, but I really didn’t even think about playing Barbie until years into developing the project.”
For those who aren’t familiar with the origin story of the film, it was Robbie who brokered the deal with Mattel that saw Greta Gerwig and her husband, Noah Baumbach, have full creative control to write the film.
Robbie later said during an interview with Collider that she tried to sell the project to production companies by telling them she thought Barbie could make a billion dollars.
“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,” she explained. “And then I gave a series of examples like, ‘dinosaurs and [Steven] Spielberg,’ that and that, that and that—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?!”
But it seems Robbie wasn’t overselling anything—and is (rightfully so) rolling in the fruits of her labor. We just hope it all fits in her heart-shaped Chanel purse.
