Margot Robbie's Barbie Follow-Up Is A Big Box Office Flop

Margot Robbie is one of the biggest A-list stars in Hollywood. She helped turn "Barbie" into one of the biggest movies of all time. Unfortunately, even when paired with fellow Oscar-nominee Colin Farrell ("The Penguin"), she couldn't help turn "A Big Bold Beautiful Journey" into a hit. Far from it, unfortunately. The original romantic fantasy epic absolutely bombed at the box office during its opening weekend, with Sony Pictures left holding the bag for this one.

Directed by Kogonada, "A Big Bold Beautiful Journey" flopped at the domestic box office, taking in just $3.5 million in its debut. That was good enough for number six on the charts, just scarcely above the new Angel Studios football movie "The Senior" ($2.6 million). It also fell well below modest pre-release box office projections, which had it in the $5 to $10 million range. To make matters worse, the movie greatly underperformed overseas as well, taking in just $4.5 million for an $8 million global launch. That's dreadful for a film with such big stars and a $45 million production budget. Competition wasn't even a huge factor, as the Jordan Peele-produced "Him also felt short of expectations with $13.5 million, while "Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle" repeated at number one with just $17.3 million. There was nothing standing in its way. 

The film centers on Sarah (Robbie) and David (Farrell), single strangers who meet at a mutual friend's wedding. Through a twist of fate, they find themselves in the midst of a fantastical, sweeping adventure together where they get to re-live important moments from their respective pasts.

Critics and audiences alike have not responded well to it. The movie currently sits at a lousy 37% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, to go with a poor 59% audience score. In his review of "A Big Bold Beautiful Journey" for /Film, Witney Seibold wrote, "it's not that big, it's hardly bold, and it's only beautiful on its surface."

Credit where credit is due, Sony really tried to make a star-driven, original movie that could appeal to adults. Given that Robbie and Farrell are both very big names, the $45 million budget isn't terribly unreasonable. But audiences are pickier than ever when it comes to leaving the house to see something in a theater. The marketing didn't communicate this as a must-see, cinematic event. So, when the reviews came out, it pretty much doomed the enterprise. Now, Sony is really going to have to hope curiosity drives this movie's VOD numbers up in the coming weeks.

For both Robbie and Farrell, it's a bit of a blow to their respective star power. Robbie helped make "Barbie" a resounding $1.4 billion smash hit. She also was a big part of the appeal of Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," while her breakout role was in "The Wolf of Wall Street" ($392 million), which is Martin Scorsese's biggest movie ever. But at this point, Robbie's misses are really starting to outweigh the hits. "Mary Queen of Scots" ($48 million worldwide), "Bombshell" ($61 million worldwide), "Birds of Prey" ($205 million worldwide), "Amsterdam" ($29 million worldwide) and "Babylon" ($64 million worldwide) are all disappointments (if not outright flops).

As for Farrell, he's been a big part of big hits like "The Batman" ($772 million worldwide), but his star power hasn't extended to getting butts in seats just because he's in a movie for a long time. He's a respected actor who can be an added value element to the right film, such as "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" ($816 million worldwide) But he's not getting people to come out just to see him in something original. The same goes for Robbie. It's proof positive that meaningful movie stars are very hard to come by in the pandemic era.

"A Big Bold Beautiful Journey" is in theaters now.