Barbie, highest grossing movie of all time at Palace Cinemas

Showing all posts tagged: Greta Gerwig

Barbie, highest grossing movie of all time at Palace Cinemas

16 August 2023

While Barbie, Greta Gerwig’s latest feature, has some way to go to become the highest grossing movie of all time — it’s currently ranked twenty-six — it is now the highest grossing movie of all time at Australian film-house chain, Palace Cinemas. Previously, The King’s Speech, made in 2010, by British filmmaker Tom Hooper, had been the biggest selling title at Palace.

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film, Greta Gerwig, Tom Hooper

Barbie by Greta Gerwig earns one billion dollars at box office

10 August 2023

With Barbie, American filmmaker Greta Gerwig has become the first woman director to make a billion dollar earning movie. In addition, Barbie is, so far, just one of nine films to reach the milestone featuring a woman as the main protagonist:

Nine, that is, if you count female fish. Finding Dory (2016) swims in the billion dollar club, along with the animated princesses of Frozen (2013), Frozen II (2019) and Beauty and the Beast (2017). Two mega-franchises managed to spit out a billion-dollar film with women at the story’s heart: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) and Captain Marvel (2019). Then, two other billion dollar one-offs: Titanic (1997) and a live-action Alice in Wonderland (2010).

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film, film production, Greta Gerwig

Barbie nukes Oppenheimer on opening weekend in America

24 July 2023

Still from Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig

Still from Barbie, a film by Greta Gerwig.

But all of these box-office taking numbers are staggering:

One of the prime records Barbie is breaking this weekend is the best domestic start for a movie helmed by a female director, with $155M. That figure beats 2019’s Captain Marvel, which was co-helmed by Anna Boden and had a $153M start. Globally, at an estimated $337M, Barbie is the second-best start for a movie from a female after Captain Marvel, which did $456.7M. Big numbers: the entire global haul for Gerwig’s awards-blockbuster crossover 2019 title, Little Women, was $218.8M.

I can’t say I’m surprised, and I think Barbie-mania was as big a thing in Australia as it was the United States. There was no missing the groups of young women and girls especially, adorned in pink, who were on their way to, or from, seeing Barbie at the movies. And this in a small town a couple of hours drive north of Sydney, where we’ve been the last few days.

The numbers for Barbie’s opening rival, the Christopher Nolan made Oppenheimer, are still impressive though. I wonder if the J. Robert Oppenheimer bio-pic will pick up on the long tail what it might have missed on the opening weekend.

Update: here are the Australian box office numbers for last weekend, the period Thursday 20 July through to Sunday 23 July 2023. Movies typically open on Thursdays in Australia (because, who wants to go to the movies on a Friday), hence the four day reporting period. Whatever, you can see Barbie well out in front of Oppenheimer.

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Christopher Nolan, film, Greta Gerwig

Films that influenced Barbie, the movie by Greta Gerwig

17 July 2023

American filmmaker Greta Gerwig shares thirty-three films influencing her new feature, Barbie, and a varied collection it is. Titles include Saturday Night Fever, Playtime, The Truman Show, The Philadelphia Story, Heaven Can Wait, Gold Diggers of 1935, and (of course) 2001: A Space Odyssey.

There’s quite a few films here that I haven’t seen. It seems to me if you’re looking for some film watching inspiration, Gerwig’s list makes for a great starting point.

Barbie film banned in Vietnam over Nine-dash line map scene

7 July 2023

American actor and filmmaker Greta Gerwig’s new film Barbie, has been banned by Vietnam’s Department of Cinema, on account of a scene depicting a map of the South China Sea. The map in question features the “nine-dash line“, which represents a territorial claim over the waters by China, a claim Vietnam, and indeed an international court, have dismissed.

But Barbie isn’t alone in being banned in Vietnam. Pine Gap, a TV mini-series made in Australia in 2018, was likewise not broadcast for the same reason.

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current affairs, film, Greta Gerwig

Barbie by Greta Gerwig, a very 2001: A Space Odyssey trailer

18 December 2022

What prompts you to see a movie? An interest in the story? Because you liked the book and are hoping against hope the film adaptation is going to be ok? Maybe you’re a fan of the director, or one of the lead actors? But what about the trailer? Would viewing a trailer — in isolation, without knowing anything about the film — be enough to inspire you to watch a given title?

The teaser/trailer for Barbie, the latest feature from American filmmaker Greta Gerwig, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, might just the trailer that does it for me…