Barbie sequel at risk as salary talks with Robbie, Gosling and Gerwig hit impasse

The comedy mega-hit Barbie made an estimated $1.5bn (£1.1bn) at the box office, was nominated for eight Academy Awards and – alongside the biopic Oppenheimer – dominated the culture during the summer of 2023. A sequel had seemed a foregone conclusion. However, the development of Barbie 2 has stalled over salary negotiations, putting the entire project in jeopardy, according to a report in the New York Times.

Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, the first film’s stars, and its director and co-writer Greta Gerwig, are yet to agree on terms. Gosling, who was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar for his performance as Barbie’s boyfriend Ken, is reportedly asking for $20m (£14.8m) to return to the role. All three are represented by the same talent agency, CAA.

The film rights to Barbie are due to revert to Mattel, the toy company that manufactures the doll, if Warner Bros does not get deals in place with all three of them by December. The film studio’s co-chairs, Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca, said in a statement: “We have a rights deal with Mattel in place and have made a series of big offers to try and finalise deals to make the next Barbie film. Unfortunately, we have been unable to reach an agreement thus far.”

If the rights were to return to Mattel and it wanted to make another Barbie film with a different studio, it would be unable to incorporate any original story elements from the first film, and Robbie, Gosling and Gerwig could not be involved.

As well as being the biggest hit of 2023, the highest-grossing live-action comedy ever and the 18th highest-grossing film in history, Barbie is also Warner Bros’s best-performing film. However, the studio only signed a one-movie deal with Gerwig and did not require the stars to commit to any sequels. “We didn’t build it to be a trilogy or something … We put everything into this one,” Robbie told Associated Press at the time. But Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, her writing partner and husband, have now said they do have an idea for a sequel, and are ready to begin writing if terms can be agreed.

Some of Warner Bros’s more recent high-budget productions, including the DC Comics film Supergirl and The Bride, a feminist reworking of Frankenstein, underperformed at the box office this year and failed to recoup their costs. The studio also had its planned merger with Paramount put on hold last month, after a group of 12 US states won a temporary injunction in their efforts to block the deal.