Barbie passed the $1 billion mark over the weekend, making it the second highest-grossing film of the year (following the April-released The Super Mario Bros. Movie).
Greta Gerwig’s plastic fantastic musing on feminism and the patriarchy via Mattel’s famous doll has now become the 53nd film (not taking inflation into consideration) to make a billion dollars worldwide, and it’s already at number 45 on the list, too, sitting above Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and The Dark Knight in the money rankings.
The takings also mean that Gerwig becomes the third female director to make a $1 billion dollar film: Jennifer Lee was the first, co-directing Frozen (2013) with Chris Buck, and Anne Boden was the second, directing Captain Marvel (2019) with Ryan Fleck. Gerwig is the first solo female director to make the list.
“I wanted to make something anarchic and wild and funny and cathartic,” said Gerwig to The New York Times a couple of days after Barbie’s smash opening. “And the idea that it’s actually being received that way, it’s sort of extraordinary.”
“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine something like this.”
Given that it’s just 17 days since Barbie was released, the film is likely to continue to rake in the dollars and rise up the rankings – meaning that Mattel’s gamble on hiring Gerwig, who entered the the industry with a series of alternative “mumblecore” movies, has very clearly paid off.
The billion-dollar club movies include some of the world’s biggest franchises: Marvel rules the roost with ten films on the list; the Jurassic Park films make the list four times. There are five Star Wars films, four Disney live-action remakes, two Harry Potter films, two Toy Story films, two Fast & Furious films, two from the Transformers franchise, two Pirates of the Caribbean, and then some smash hits: the 2012 Bond film Skyfall, Titanic, Minions, Joker, Aquaman and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Here are the top ten films in the billion dollar movie club.
Avatar ($2.9 billion)
When Avatar was released in 2009, it immediately broke every Box Office record, becoming the highest grossing film of all time worldwide. The story is set on an alien planet Pandora which humans are trying to mine for its valuable mineral unobtainium. In order to navigate the planet, they must connect their brains to specially-formulated Avatars via a neural pathway. While exploring the planet as an avatar, human Corporal Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a disabled ex-marine, meets and falls in love with native Na’vi Neytiri te Tskaha Mo’at’ite (Zoe Saldaña).
At the time of its release, Avatar was heralded for its use of innovative technologies and special effects. The New York Times called it “a new eden, both cosmic and cinematic.
“Though it’s easy to pigeonhole Mr. Cameron as a gear head who’s more interested in cool tools (which here include 3-D),” it said, “he is, with Avatar, also making a credible attempt to create a paradigm shift in science-fiction cinema.”
The film, which was nominated for nine Oscars, winning three, was made on a budget of $237 million – making the film the fourth most expensive film ever made at the time of its release.
Avengers: End Game ($2.8 billion)
This 2019 superhero film, the fourth in the Avengers series, is the highest-grossing Marvel movie of all time, which is really saying something given just how lucrative the comic book publisher’s movies have been. The story picks up after Avengers: Infinity War (2018), where much of the universe has been decimated. The Avengers – superheroes brought together by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to stop forces of evil destroying the world – must once again join forces to sort things out. They now have to reverse the chaos that Thanos (Josh Brolin) has put into effect.
On the whole reviewers loved the film as much as the fans: “The only complaint about Avengers: Endgame is that it raises the bar so high that there may well never be a superhero movie to match it,” said the Standard. “It represents a staggering achievement.”
Part of the film’s success was due to the sheer number of stars gathered together on screen: Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Mark Ruffalo as Hulk, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange, Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther, Tom Holland as Spider-Man, Zoe Saldaña as Gamora and so on. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a stellar 94 per cent tomatometer rating.
Avatar: The Way of Water ($2.3 billion)
When Avatar’s part two was released in December it quickly went to the top of this list. It was once again praised for its use of pioneering technology in film, and won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects: “It is still breathtaking. When I left the cinema, I felt like I’d been through something special. I felt boosted,” said the Standard.
Before it was released, director James Cameron fretted to Entertainment Weekly: “The big issue is: Are we going to make any damn money? We’re in a new world post-COVID, post-streaming. Maybe those [box office] numbers will never be seen again. Who knows? It’s all a big roll of the dice.” He needn’t have worried.
Kate Winslet joined the cast for chapter two, which returns to Pandora, and follows human Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Na’vi Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and their new family as they work together to stay alive in the face of a renewed threat. There are reportedly a further three Avatar spin-off films already in the works.
Titanic ($2.26 billion)
This 1997 film, also from Cameron, was the highest grossing film of all time, until, twelve years later, it was slightly bumped down the list by his Avatar. The first film to ever earn $1 billion, the film tells the love story between rich teengaer Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet), who is engaged to be married to a much older man out of financial necessity, and working-class Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio). They meet on the Titanic, which was the largest ship on the world’s ocean at the time, and immediately fall in love. Things go about as well as you might expect for a major historic disaster.
The film picked up 11 Oscars including Best Director and Best Picture in 1998, and the leading single from its soundtrack, Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On, went to number one in the single charts around the world.
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens ($2.07 billion)
This 2015 Star Wars movie, co-written, and directed by J. J. Abrams, followed on from 1983’s Return of the Jedi. A hybrid of old and new, the film starred fresh faces Daisy Ridley and John Boyega alongside Star Wars legends Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher. Five Star Wars films are in the billion dollar club, with this one, the first of the revival sequel trilogy, topping the list.
The film picks up 30 years after the death of Darth Vader. Desert scavenger Rey (Ridley) and ex-stormtrooper Finn (Boyega) get drawn into an intergalactic battle when Rey comes across a droid that contains important information about Luke Skywalker, the legendary Jedi Master. Baddie Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and the First Order are also after the information, making for a tense face-off.
Avengers: Infinity War ($2.05 billion)
Avengers: Infinity War (2018) is the second highest-grossing superhero film of all time, beaten only to the top spot by Avengers: Endgame (2019). The story follows a similar plot to the franchise’s earlier chapters: all the superheroes must come together again to fight the evil Thanos (Brolin).
Spider-Man: No Way Home ($1.92 billion)
Spider-Man: No Way Home was the last of the new Marvel Studios Spider-Man trilogy which starred Tom Holland as Peter Parker. All the films in the new trilogy did fantastically well: the first made $880 million and the second made $1.132 billion.
Also starring Michael Keaton, Gwyneth Paltrow, Zendaya, Donald Glover, and Tony Revolori, part three follows what happens when Spider-Man’s true identity is discovered. Wishing to go back in time and reverse this, Parker turns to Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for help. But the spell doesn’t go according to plan and Parker finds himself facing five new enemies from his unknown past: the Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, Electro, the Lizard and Sandman.
Jurassic World ($1.67 billion)
When the Jurassic Park trilogy was released in the Nineties it brought in millions: 1993’s Jurassic Park earned a whopping $1.046 billion alone. So perhaps it was obvious that a Jurassic reboot would do as well.
The Jurassic World trilogy, which was rebooted 14 years later, launched with Jurassic World. This time the plot revolves around what happens when a new breed of genetically engineered dinosaur manages to break free from captivity. Obviously, it causes havoc across the island as residents and vistors try to flee. Both sequel films Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) and Jurassic World Dominion (2022) also made over $1 billion.
The Lion King ($1.66 billion)
Disney’s live-action remakes have been a resounding success. Their fourth update, 2010’s Alice in Wonderland, made a whopping $1.025 billion worldwide, which must have delighted the media company: 17 Disney films have since been subsequently remade.
It was always likely that Jon Favreau’s 2019 live-action remake of The Lion King would smash the Box Office – the 1994 animation had made close to a billion dollars itself. Nevertheless, the film, which had a voice cast that included Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Moira Kelly, Rowan Atkinson and Whoopi Goldberg, and music once again from Hans Zimmer, surpassed all expectations, to become Disney’s most lucrative film.
The Avengers ($1.52 billion)
2012’s The Avengers did astonishingly well, even by Marvel’s standards. Although it received more of a mixed response from reviewers (The Guardian gave it four stars, describing it as “an enjoyably absurd and absurdly enjoyable extravaganza, both delirious and surrealist”; The New York Times was less complimentary, saying: “The secret of The Avengers is that it is a snappy little dialogue comedy dressed up as something else, that something else being a giant A.T.M.) this evidently did not perturb fans. It became the highest-grossing superhero movie ever made, a position it held for six years until Avengers: Infinity War came along.
The film details what happens when Loki (Tom Hiddleston), the adopted brother of Thor (Chris Hemsworth), decides to invade Earth. Fury’s Avengers are brought together to try and stop his malevolent plans.
It makes sense that after The Avengers landed in 2012, three more massive Avengers films have been released in as little as seven years: there are now two more in the works, set to be released in 2026 and 2027.
