‘Barbie 2’ Is in Crisis Over “Massive” Salary Demands From Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling

A few weeks ago, The New York Times reported that a sequel to Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” — the highest-grossing movie in Warner Bros. history — was in a state of limbo due to salary disputes with the creatives. Apparently, Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav has, so far, stood his ground against what is being described as Gerwig and company’s “massive pay demands.”

So, now, here’s a new report from Variety that gets into the nitty-gritty of it all. And, of course, the “Barbie” team wants millions upon millions in upfront salaries to return and make the sequel.

The main stars and filmmakers — Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach — are reportedly asking for an exorbitant amount. Gosling, for example, wants $20M+ to return as Ken, while Robbie made around $50M from the first film through her salary and share of the profits and wants much more this time around. Gerwig, who I estimate earned $15M–20M from the original, and co-writer Baumbach are also seeking higher upfront fees.

Overall, these are immense paychecks, and giving everyone even more could make the sequel extremely expensive to produce. By my best guesstimate, based purely on upfront salaries alone and not including backend participation, we’re looking at $100M+ just to bring back Robbie, Gosling, Gerwig and Baumbach. The total budget of the first film was $145M.

The leader of the contractual discussions is reportedly Gerwig, who directed and co-wrote the first one, which grossed more than $1.4 billion at the global box office. Warner Bros. has made more than six offers to Gerwig’s team over the past three years, all of which have been rejected.

The most recent offer, which came late this spring, is said by a studio source to be the highest Warner Bros. has ever offered a filmmaking team and its stars — “life-changing money” — for a single project.

Warner Bros. has roughly four months to put another “Barbie” movie into active development — or the rights will revert back to Mattel. If new contracts don’t materialize, Mattel will not be permitted to use any single detail of Gerwig’s “Barbie” with another studio and will have to reboot the entire IP.

In 2023, Gerwig stated that she wasn’t interested in making a sequel (“totally zero”), sentiments that Robbie later echoed those sentiments (“no need for a sequel”). But as the saying goes, money talks, and it seems that, for the right price, both would be more than happy to return for “Barbie 2.”