Steven Spielberg memorably thanked Tom Cruise last year for saving the movie business with “Top Gun: Maverick,” but it appears Meryl Streep has a different selection. While attending this year’s Palm Springs Film Awards, the Oscar winner called out Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” for saving the movies and “all of our jobs” last summer. The blockbuster comedy was the highest grossing movie of 2023 with $1.4 billion in ticket sales. It also stands as the highest-grossing Warner Bros. film in history.
Streep took the stage after Billie Eilish and Finneas accepted an award for their work on the “Barbie” music soundtrack. The Grammy and Oscar-winning duo is back in the awards race this year for their song “What Was I Made For?” They earned the Chairman’s Award at the Palm Springs Film Awards, becoming the first songwriters to ever receive the honor.
“I just want to say to Billie and Finneas that you have delivered the ‘Barbie’ love bomb,” Streep said when she took the stage. “You’ve saved the movies last summer and all of our jobs. You’ve delivered joy to countless generations and genders of people, and you should surf that wave, kids, until you’re old and deserve to be jaded like me.”
Billion-dollar box office hits like “Barbie,” as well as Cruise’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” prove there’s still an appetite for the theatrical experience after the COVID pandemic. When Spielberg ran into Cruise at last year’s Oscar nominees luncheon, he thanked his “Minority Report” and “War of the World” star for keeping movie theaters alive.
“You saved Hollywood’s ass and you might have saved theatrical distribution,” Spielberg told Cruise at the time. “Seriously, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ might have saved the entire theatrical industry.”
“Barbie” is currently nominated for nine Golden Globe awards and also received a record-breaking 18 Critic’s Choice Award nominations. The soundtrack for the movie earned 12 Grammy nominations, with “What Was I Made For?” landing in both the record of the year and song of the year categories. It’s also shortlisted for the Oscar for best original song alongside two other “Barbie” tracks: Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night” and Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken.”
Despite all of the “Barbie” success, leading star Margot Robbie isn’t jumping at the chance to do a sequel right now.
“It’s funny, that knee-jerk reaction in this day and age for everyone to immediately ask about a sequel,” Robbie told Variety in this week’s cover story. “I don’t think it was like that 20 years ago. This wasn’t designed to be a trilogy … I don’t know what more could even look like. We want to make more films that have the effect that ‘Barbie’ has. I don’t know if it has to be ‘Barbie 2.’ Why can’t it be another big, original, bold idea where we get an amazing filmmaker, a big budget to play with, and the trust of a huge conglomerate behind them to go and really play? I want to do that.”
