This is basically an escalation of the story I posted about a couple of weeks ago, regarding problems with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie sequel, and how it was stalled due to high salary demands. Things aren’t getting any better, according to a new report at Variety, which digs a bit deeper into the millions of upfront money it would take to get Gerwig, Margot Robbie, and Ryan Gosling back.
According to the report, Gerwig, Robbie, Gosling, and co-writer Noah Baumbach are asking for an excessive amount to return for Barbie 2. The first film had a budget of around $145M, and went on to earn over $1.4B in 2023. To come back, Gosling is said to want $20M+ to play Ken again, while Robbie is asking for more than the $50M she made the first time. Gerwig is also asking for a salary increase. All told, it could be about $100M to get them all back, which is a lot of money that Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav has refused to pay…so far.
It’s apparently not for lack of trying. WB is said to have made six offers to Gerwig, who is leading the negotiations, and all of them have been rejected. There’s only about six months left before the Barbie rights revert to Mattel, which would necessitate a complete reboot with a different studio.
Over the last few years, Gerwig and Robbie haven’t been especially pumped to do a sequel, anyway, which might explain such high demands. If WB meets their asking price, they would obviously return. But if not, they go along as they originally intended, which was to have Barbie be a single, standalone movie.
