It was only a matter of time until Barbie would pass the $1 billion mark thanks to factors like the spread of Barbenheimer memes, a fascinating trend affecting some couples post-viewing, and the power of Ryan Gosling as Ken. It also helps that Barbie is a genuinely good film, thanks partly to a strong cast and Greta Gerwig’s excellent writing and direction.
Gerwig is not new to the business of writing and directing hilarious and heartfelt movies about women coming of age (though none are as high-profile and high-budget as Barbie); she began to see success as a filmmaker when she co-wrote and starred in the film Frances Ha in 2012. Before Barbie, Gerwig wrote and directed Lady Bird, a film about a teenager loosely based on herself, and Little Women, a 2019 adaptation of the 1868 novel by Louisa May Alcott.
Though her previous films were all successful, Barbie‘s success is on another level. The film is Gerwig’s first time directing with a budget of over $100 million, and now that it’s reached the big $1 billion milestone, Barbie is now the highest-earning film directed by one woman ever. How much of those earnings did Gerwig see herself?
How much did Greta Gerwig make from directing Barbie?
As of writing, neither Gerwig nor Warner Bros. Pictures have confirmed her exact salary. We know from a Variety report that Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie made $12.5 million each for their roles as Ken and Barbie, respectively. Variety also reported Barbie‘s budget to be $145 million. Given all that information, we’d expect Gerwig to have made a pretty penny from Barbie. However, a director’s salary can vary drastically even when you’re as experienced as she is.
Most directors rarely publicize their salaries, but occasionally that information becomes public knowledge. In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Christopher Nolan, who directed this year’s Oppenheimer, made $20 million upfront for directing Dunkirk as well as 20% of the film’s gross. The article emphasizes that this kind of income is rare even for the Nolans of the film world; David Fincher reportedly lost out on directing Steve Jobs because he wouldn’t compromise his $10 million rate. According to this report, a director’s salary at the time-averaged from $750,000 to $1.5 million, depending on their previous work.
Vanity Fair reported similarly in 2017, writing that studios were looking to minimize risks in an increasingly franchise-heavy climate, and part of that was paying directors less; one anonymous source summed it up by saying, “At the shareholders meeting, they don’t care that David Fincher or Martin Scorsese directed the movie. All they see is a huge financial loss, which they cannot have.” However, another source said that younger directors were generally better paid than more established legacy filmmakers. Granted, the way people watch movies has changed a lot since these articles were written, and directors’ salaries have likely changed as well.
While Gerwig hasn’t disclosed just how much she made from Barbie, she did talk to CNBC Make It in 2020 about how she wished to become a better negotiator regarding her salary. Part of her reluctance was a fear of not even being allowed to make the movie if she fights for what she’s worth, but the lack of transparency is another part of what makes negotiating complicated. “Figuring out how you should be reimbursed for something and what you are worth is complicated,” she explained, before saying she wanted to eventually follow a compensation plan similar to Nolan’s that was based on how the movie performed. If she did that for Barbie, we’re sure it’s paying off in spades as we speak.
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