‘She’s an extraordinary genius’: Warner Bros. chief bows down to money-making machine Greta Gerwig

Greta Gerwig‘s Barbie has been the hit of the year, finally surpassing The Super Mario Bros. Movie to take first place as the highest-grossing box office movie of 2023 (so far). Ever since its announcement, the hype around the film had been huge, and it only got bigger upon its release, as audiences flooded theatres around the globe. It’s no surprise then, that Gerwig is being hailed a genius by the studio she made all that money for.

Warner Bros.’ David Zaslav, President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, showered praise on the director at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology event on Wednesday, presenting her with a bouquet of pink (of course) roses, the least he could do, considering Barbie is now Warner Bros.’ highest grossing movie.

As reported by IndieWire, Zaslav spoke to a Goldman Sachs analyst and when asked what lessons the studio took from the success of Barbie, he responded, “Greta Gerwig gets the most credit. She’s an extraordinary genius.” He went on to praise her involvement with marketing, stating she “worked very effectively” and “right down to the wire” with their marketing team.

Warner Bros. really did get behind the director’s vision in every way possible, with Zaslav saying, “Every asset that we have was turned pink.” On the show Inside the NBA he had hosts, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Kenny “The Jet” Smith, and Ernie Johnson discussing Barbie whilst in other departments pink played a prominent role, “Every cake on Food Network for a month was pink,” Zaslav stated, adding “When we get something we believe in, we can really drive it.”

Barbie has just recently taken over the reigning box office champ of the year, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, having now made $1.38 billion at the box office to date. This also lands it in 15th place on the biggest box office films of all time, just under Avengers: Age of Ultron which made $1.4 billion.

Projections indicate that Gerwig’s creation could reach $1.53 billion, which if correct, would land it in the top 10 highest-grossing movies of all time, beating out Marvel’s Avengers ($1.52 billion). With so much money made for the studio, it’s only fair that Saszlav wax lyrical about the director that brought his company so much dough.