The toymaking giants behind Barbie, the doll which inspired Greta Gerwig’s latest film, have revealed their earnings from the box office hit.
The Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie, 33, as the titular doll created by Mattel, earned nearly $1.4bn (£1.12bn) at the global box office.
The movie follows Barbie as she ventures out into the real world to find her true purpose in life alongside her boyfriend, Ken (played by Ryan Gosling).
During a Goldman Sachs media conference on Thursday (7 September), Mattel CFO Anthony DiSilvestro shared that the film would contribute more than $125m (£100m) in gross billings to the company this year, a figure that included sales of toys and consumer products.
“Our economics are a function of the revenue, as well as profit participation, which scales up with the success of the movie,” DiSilvestro said, according to Deadline.
Also on Thursday, The New York Times reported that Mattel had earned five per cent of the box office revenue, as well as a percentage of eventual profits as a producer of the movie and additional payments as owner of the Barbie intellectual property rights.
Last month, Variety reported that Robbie was set to earn roughly $50m (£39.4m) in salary and box office bonuses from the movie.
Margot Robbie (right) and Ryan Gosling in ‘Barbie’— (Warner Bros)
The Australian actor also produced the film via her production company, LuckyChap Entertainment, which she founded in 2014 with her now-husband, Tom Ackerley.
Mattel is currently lining up a slew of other film and television projects inspired by their other products, such as Barney the dinosaur, Hot Wheels and Pictionary.
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“What you saw around the Barbie movie was, we believe, a template, a case study, an opportunity to truly understand the value and appeal that our brands have, the cultural resonance, and, importantly, our ability to execute these projects both creatively and commercially,” Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz said at the Goldman conference.
“We hope and expect to have more. I’m not saying it will be as big or as successful as Barbie, but it will be the same approach.”
Barbie’s massive success for Warner Bros has seen it reach several significant landmarks. Previously, it sailed past Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight to become the film company’s biggest release in North America.
It is officially the highest-grossing title of the year in North American cinemas after surpassing the earnings of The Super Mario Bros Movie, released in April.
Gerwig, who also wrote Barbie with her partner and frequent collaborator Noah Baumbach, is the highest-grossing female director of all time at the domestic box office, as well as the highest-grossing female director of a live-action movie worldwide.
The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey branded it “a near-miraculous achievement from Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie” in her five-star review.
