Greta Gerwig had to fight to keep a scene in the Barbie film which she describes as ‘the heart of the movie’.
While Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) are in ‘the real world’ they spot an elderly woman sitting on a bench, with Barbie stopping to tell her she is beautiful, to which the woman gently replies: ‘I know.’
Studio executives insisted it was not a pivotal moment and the story could have just as easily been told without it.
Writer and director Greta, 39, was adamant it should remain as it is the moment Barbie begins to notice the scope of human emotion for the first time.
Greta told Rolling Stone: ‘I love that scene so much. It’s a cul-de-sac of a moment, in a way – it doesn’t lead anywhere. And in early cuts, looking at the movie, it was suggested, “Well, you could cut it. And actually, the story would move on just the same.” And I said, “If I cut the scene, I don’t know what this movie is about.”
Determined: Greta Gerwig, 39, had to fight to keep a scene in the Barbie film which she describes as ‘the heart of the movie’ (Greta pictured at the Barbie European Premiere in London earlier this month)
‘To me, this is the heart of the movie. The way Margot plays that moment is so gentle and so unforced.
‘There’s the more outrageous elements in the movie that people say, “Oh, my God, I can’t believe Mattel let you do this,” or, “I can’t believe Warner Bros. let you do this.”
‘But to me, the part that I can’t believe that is still in the movie is this little cul-de-sac that doesn’t lead anywhere – except for, it’s the heart of the movie.’
It comes after the dual offerings of Barbie and Oppenheimer prompted the biggest weekend for UK cinema-going since 2019, according to the UK Cinema Association.
Greta’s film about the Mattel doll having an existential crisis and Christopher Nolan’s epic about the ‘father’ of the atomic bomb, generated almost £30 million at the UK box office.
Cinema chain Vue said a fifth of its customers had purchased tickets to see both films in a double bill dubbed by social media as Barbenheimer.
More than 2,000 of Vue’s Barbie screenings were sold out, according to the company.
Tim Richards, chief executive and founder of Vue International, told the PA news agency: ‘We knew it was going to be a big weekend based on the advanced bookings, which were also the biggest since the pandemic.
Movie magic: While Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) are in ‘the real world’ they spot an elderly woman sitting on a bench
Special moment: Barbie stopped to tell the lady she was beautiful, to which the woman gently replied: ‘I know’
Telling the tale: Writer and director Greta was adamant it should remain as it is the moment Barbie begins to notice the scope of human emotion for the first time (Margot Robbie pictured as Barbie)
‘The numbers are phenomenal. We had over 500,000 customers come to Vue on the weekend alone. We had 4,000 sold-out sessions, 2,000 sold-out sessions for Barbie alone.
‘But I think that it’s not just about Barbie and Oppenheimer, it’s just a return to cinema.
‘Our customers never left us, we just haven’t had movies. If you look back in the last 12 months, we have set records with Avatar, one of the highest grossing movies in history.
‘We’ve got Tom Cruise, at 60 years old, and Top Gun: Maverick delivered 1.5 billion dollars, the biggest movie of his career.
‘And you look at smaller movies, you look at a black-and-white film, Belfast, to deliver one of the highest-grossing black-and-white films in the modern era.
‘So it’s a supply issue, and not a demand issue – our customers are desperate to go out and watch a great movie with others.’
Richards said Pixar film Elemental, Cruise offering Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, and Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones finale Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny also received a bump this weekend, aided by the poor weather.
Cinemas now face the prospect of a halt in the supply chain as Hollywood’s writers and actors are on strike.
Big bucks: It comes after the dual offerings of Barbie and Oppenheimer prompted the biggest weekend for UK cinema-going since 2019, according to the UK Cinema Association (Ryan Gosling pictured as Ken in the Barbie movie)
Richards said that, while the summer blockbusters have already been released or are ready to go, the effects of the strike will be felt further down the line.
He said: ‘This does not feel or seem like a short-term issue, and the stakes are high on both sides. So we’re hoping for a short strike and a quick resolution.’
In the short term it is the cost-of-living crisis that could pose a more immediate issue.
He said: ‘We are a big consumer of energy and our costs have gone up, probably disproportionally, and we’ve done our very best not to pass those costs on to our customers because we are aware of the pressures that our customers are undergoing.
‘We are aware of the difficulties they have and continue to have with high inflation, high utility costs, and it’s tough for everyone.
‘For families we’ve got special pricing for Saturday and Sunday mornings, we have ticket prices at over half our cinemas at £4.99 and we’ve done our very best to make it as accessible as possible for our customers.’
Odeon cinemas welcomed more than one million people through its doors following the release of Barbie and Oppenheimer, in the chain’s busiest week since the Covid pandemic.
It marked the biggest weekend for the cinemas since Avengers: Endgame in 2019 and the chain’s busiest Saturday since 2015.
Double whammy: Cinema chain Vue said a fifth of its customers had purchased tickets to see both Barbie and Oppenheimer in a double bill dubbed by social media as Barbenheimer (Florence Pugh and Cillian Murphy seen in Oppenheimer)
Odeon said it sold 230,000 litres of drinks, 610,000 litres of popcorn, and 49,000 portions of nachos over the weekend.
Suzie Welch, interim managing director of Odeon UK & Ireland, said: ‘What a weekend it was for guests, with so many cinemas jam-packed full from Friday onwards on our busiest weekend since 2019.
‘We were thrilled by the demand these blockbuster openings caused and are impressed at those that opted for the double bill – whichever way round guests did it!
‘Our colleagues did an incredible job of ensuring everything ran smoothly at such a busy time and we hope to welcome many more through Odeon’s doors in the coming weeks to enjoy the amazing films on offer.’
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