Calling ‘Barbie’ the best movie to ever reach a billion dollars ignites exactly the debate you’d imagine

It’s Barbie‘s world, we’re just living in it. Since its release on July 21, it’s become a genuine cultural phenomenon, far exceeding box office projections to become the film of the summer and has officially joined the billion-dollar club.

Along the way, Greta Gerwig has become the highest-grossing female director of all time and sequels now seem inevitable. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. After all, Margot Robbie promised studio executives that Barbie would make a billion, though later reconsidered, saying “maybe I was overselling it…“

You don’t have to look too far for people piling accolades onto the movie, though one in particular from New Yorker writer and film critic Richard Brody has rankled film fans. Is Barbie really the best movie ever to make a billion dollars?

So let’s take a glance over at the list of billion-dollar movies and see how it stacks up. There are a lot of frothy blockbusters on there that are merely fun and entertaining, but what’s got some substance? We’d name Jurassic Park, Toy Story 3, Joker, The Dark Knight, The Return of the King and Skyfall as genuinely good movies that are at least Barbie‘s equal. Fans of all those movies have taken to the battlements to defend them against the Barbie onslaught, though Brody will not concede an inch.

There’s also Titanic, though Brody clearly thinks that’s overrated:

Most replies conclude that Brody is trolling fans and that Barbie being the best billion-dollar movie isn’t so much praising it as pointing out the poor competition it faces for that honour, or as one user put it: “being the best of a list of terrible films means what to you?”

Hyperbole aside Barbie really is a fun ride and if there’s anyone out there who hasn’t seen it (can’t be many by now) put aside your preconceptions and check it out before it leaves theaters.