Barbie is the first movie with a Stephen Malkmus joke to surpass $1 billion at the worldwide box office. It’s also (and most importantly) the first film from a solo female filmmaker to join the $1 billion club.
But it’s not the first $1 billion movie for a member of the cast.
The obvious guesses are Margot Robbie or Ryan Gosling, but their top-grossing films before Barbie are Suicide Squad ($745 million) and La La Land ($436 million). It’s also not Will Ferrell, or Kate McKinnon, or Simu Liu, but it is, unsurprisingly, another member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ariana Greenblatt, who plays tween Sasha in Barbie, was also young Gamora in Avengers: Infinity War, which is one of only six films to exceed $2 billion at the box office.
The list of performers who have been in multiple billion dollar movies includes Samuel L. Jackson (10), Don Cheadle (6), and Scarlett Johansson (6), mostly from Marvel films, but no one did it at a younger age than Greenblatt.
“I just remember thinking, no matter how this turns out, I’m so happy I got to have a meeting with the two of them,” she told Flaunt about interacting with Robbie and Gerwig while auditioning for Barbie. “I was like, ‘Just kill it in this meeting so they remember you, and you’re good.’”
(Via Screenrant)
