Margot Robbie has recently opened up about feeling confused by the poor box office reception for Babylon, the 2022 film directed by Damien Chazelle. She thinks it might share the same fate as classics such as Shawshank Redemption, and viewers will appreciate it in the coming decades.
Babylon, starring Robbie, Brad Pitt, Diego Calva, Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, and Jean Smart, made only 15 million USD domestically and 63 million USD worldwide on a budget of above 80 million USD. It received fewer nominations at the awards season than expected, earning only three nominations at the 95th Academy Awards. In the film set in 1920s Hollywood, Robbie played the role of actress Nellie LaRoy, who is based on real-life Clara Bow.
Robbie took to the Talking Pictures podcast to express her discontentment with how this movie was received. Although acknowledging the fact that she’s deeply attached to the project, Robbie never believed that this would result in such failure. Robbie said, “I don’t get it either. I know I am biased because I am very close to the project and I obviously believe in it, but I still can’t figure out why people hated it.”
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Babylon might get its deserved appreciation twenty years later, like Shawshank Redemption, where nobody attended the movie theaters until some years later when its merit was realized. The Barbie star added, “I wonder if in 20 years people are going to be like, ‘Wait, Babylon didn’t do well at the time?’ Like when you hear that Shawshank Redemption was a failure at the time and you’re like, ‘How is that possible?’”
For the unversed, Robbie’s film led by Pitt is an epic set in Los Angeles. The official description reads, “Decadence, depravity, and outrageous excess lead to the rise and fall of several ambitious dreamers in 1920s Hollywood as the industry begins to transition from silent pictures to the world of sound films.”
While it may not have connected with its audience upon initial release, Margot Robbie remains optimistic that eventually, time will give the movie the appreciation she thinks it deserves. Babylon is currently available on Netflix for streaming.
