Barbie has given Hollywood its latest billion-dollar baby. Greta Gerwig’s homage to and deconstruction of the Mattel toy has detonated the pink ceiling by becoming the first film directed by a woman to achieve ticket sales above $1 billion at the global box office. And it did so in just 17 days –faster than James Cameron’s Avatar and Disney’s live-action The Lion King.
The billion-dollar club is exclusive, as you’d imagine. But its membership is also more eclectic than we might think. George Lucas’s original Star Wars doesn’t make the cut, having earned “just” $775 million.
Nor does Raiders of the Lost Ark, a long way short at $389 million. Adjust for inflation, and the story is obviously different. Still, the facts are that only 53 movies have earned $1 billion or more – and now Barbie is one of them.
Barbie is a quirky movie and, in that regard, in good company. Not all billion-dollar movies are created equally. Some suffered critical drubbing but clean up anyway. A few get there without any recognisable stars (unless Martin Freeman counts – he doesn’t).
At least one was an underrated masterpiece that seemed to come and go without leaving a trace – and yet was simultaneously a massive smash. Here’s a dozen movies that made a billion without anyone noticing (apart from the accountants).
1. Captain Marvel
The fanboys hated it, and Oscar-winner Brie Larson looked uncomfortable throughout the promotional campaign. None of which got in the way of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s contribution to the Marvel Universe becoming, in 2019, the 23rd highest-grossing film of all time.
Part of that was down to canny marketing. The film was released on International Women’s Day and genuinely broke new ground by being the first Marvel feature with a female lead. Boden also created history as just the second woman to direct a billion-dollar hit – although, as with Frozen’s Jennifer Lee, she was working alongside a man. Overall, the good will was tremendous and helped Captain Marvel soar.
2. Zootopia
If we think of Zootopia today – and we do not – it is of an underdog animation that took on the big animated franchises and charmed its way into viewers’ hearts. All of that is true. But the film is also a love letter by its director Byron Howard (Bolt) to the under-appreciated Seventies Disney cartoon of Robin Hood, featuring a cast of talking animals.
Byron wanted to update the formula, and while Disney shot down his initial pitches of an animal version of The Three Musketeers and a film about “a mad doctor cat…who turned children into animals”, it greenlit Zooptopia. More than greenlit: it cast Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, JK Simmons and Shakira in this charming tale of a city populated by furry friends, whose behaviour is loosely governed by their animal instincts. A sequel is on the way.
3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Tim from The Office: Billion Dollar Box Office Hero? It sounds absurd even when you know it to be true. But that is what Martin Freeman achieved in 2013 as part one of Peter Jackson’s three-film adaptation of Tolkien’s children’s novel went supernova.
An Unexpected Journey had a troubled route to the cinema. Guillermo del Toro was initially hired to direct, only for Jackson to step in at the last minute. Warner Brothers, meanwhile, urged the New Zealand government to ban unions from the film.
However, Lord of the Rings fans rushed to opening weekend, and it was nearly a quarter of the way to that billion figure in its first four days. If it is remembered today, it is for the return of Andy Serkis as the fascinatingly pitiful Gollum.
4. Alice In Wonderland
Incredibly this is both Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s biggest movie. It is also widely agreed to be among their worst and a long way from their breathtaking first collaboration, Edward Scissorhands.
So why was it such a success? One factor was that it arrived during the post-Avatar 3D movie boom and that this trippy tale of talking caterpillars and Cheshire cats was perfect for the 3D model of cinema-as-theme-park ride. This was pre-Amber Heard, too, when everyone loved a goofy Johnny Depp. And Mia Wasikowska was perfectly cast as wide-eyed yet resourceful Alice.
5, Aquaman
Johnny Depp’s ex, Amber Heard, is another billion dollar member. She played underwater Princess Mera in James Wan’s OTT adaptation of Aquaman. The water-breathing, fish-befriending character was treated as a joke for years: a running gag in the Entourage TV series revolves around plans for an Aquaman film. But it went from punchline to platinum hit when DC cast Jason Momoa as the gill-flexing gadabout. One reason for its success was its playful tone: Zack Snyder’s DC movies were about as much of a hoot as a Wagner triple-bill, while the Marvel Universe was getting darker with its Thanos movies. Amidst all those long faces, cinema-goers smelled something fishy in Aquman and loved it.
One person who was surprised by Aquaman himself was Momoa. “I’ve done things that are amazing that no one sees and no one gives a s___ about. You just don’t know in this business.” he told Men’s Health, “I don’t go do things and think, ‘Oh, I’m gonna get $1 billion on this one.’ I go in and do my best job.”
6. Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
The Godfather Part 3 of the Transformers series, Dark of the Moon, was panned by critics, who described it as “breathtakingly dumb” and compared star Rosie Huntington-Whiteley unfavourably to her predecessor Megan Fox. Audiences nonetheless flocked to it, drawn by its eye-popping colour palette and deafening set pieces culminating in a burnt-out Chicago showdown.
It helped that the film was a sly homage to Star Trek, with Leonard Nimoy (aka Spock) the voice of villain Sentinel Prime. It also benefitted from the post-Avatar 3D craze, with director Michael Bay shooting on custom 3D cameras. It is one of two Transformers films to reach a billion, followed by Mark Wahlberg’s Transformers: Age of Extinction.
7. Aladdin
Disney’s live-action remakes of its classic cartoons are often decried as unimaginative cash-ins. Goodness, do they do business at the box office, however. See Jon Favreau’s The Lion King. See also the 2019 remake of the 1992’s Aladdin, directed by geezer supreme Guy Ritchie and with a blue-skinned Will Smith as the Genie. Post-Oscars slap, it’s hard to see Smith in other than sinister terms – but a mere four years ago, he was a beloved figure at the box office, and his charm propelled Aladdin into the billion-dollar league.
8. The Last Jedi
None of George Lucas’s original Star Wars made a billion. But Rian Johnson’s supremely duff 2017 contribution to the saga effortlessly achieved that Jedi mind trick. Reviewers appreciated his attempt to do something different with Star Wars by turning Luke Skywalker into a grumpy old man and ripping up all the story threads left by JJ Abrams’s The Force Awakens. The return of Mark Hamill as Luke was a huge factor in its success – but he disapproved of Johnson’s nihilistic take on the character, and fans felt likewise – though only after they had shelled out to see the film.
9. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Colin Trevorrow scored a huge hit when he rebooted Spielberg’s classic tale of genetically modified dinosaurs with Jurassic World in 2015. But the novelty factor had vanished when Spanish director JA Bayona took up the reigns with the noisy and incoherent Fallen Kingdom. But it nevertheless blazed its way past a billion – thanks to its impressive menagerie of dinosaurs, including more animatronic monsters than any previous Jurassic Park film (audiences are felt to favour animatronic effects over CGI). Not bad for a movie extensively shot at Langley Business Centre in Slough.
10. Frozen II
Hollywood’s billion-dollar list is full of sequels and spinoffs –for instance, the aforementioned Last Jedi. Still, seeing Frozen II make the cut is a surprise, considering how much the original overshadows it.
That first Frozen gave the world an inescapable power ballad, Let It Go. Frozen 2, by contrast, appeared to come and go without anyone noticing. Its production was more troubled, too – in early test screenings, children found the plot hard to follow. Even its big Oscar nomination song, Into The Unknown, quickly wore out its welcome and has not hung around in the manner of Let It Go.
Frozen II nonetheless benefited from fortunate timing. It came out in November 2019 – the original release window for Wonder Woman 1984 and Bond film, No Time To Die. Both were pushed back and then further delayed by the pandemic – meaning Frozen II had the box office to itself for an entire month.
11. Minions
Adults are often baffled by the popularity of these tiny, yellow henchmen,introduced in 2010’s Despicable Me. But children can’t get enough of them, and the characters’ first stand-alone outing was a huge smash. The impressive cast is headed by Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton and Steve Coogan. But the film’s appeal is also down to the slapstick humour of the minions, which speaks to adults and children alike. It transcends language barriers: a feat traditionally beyond Hollywood comedies.
12. Super Mario Bros.
Until April 2023, movie adaptations of popular video games had a patchy history. That was turned on its head by Super Mario Bros, which has had the most successful release ever for an animated movie. Part of that was due to the in-built love for Mario, Princess Peach, the villainous Bowser etc. It also benefited from the viral success of Bowser – voiced by Jack Black – and his musical valentine to Peaches, later turned into a music video. It also benefitted from releasing into the relatively empty April window, when competition was thin on the ground.
