Damien Chazelle’s 2022 historical dramedy “Babylon” is one of the most notorious box office bombs of the past few years, and has become a symbol of excessive Hollywood spending in the years before the contraction that’s happening now. The three-hour-plus epic about the end of the silent movie era cost about $80 million and grossed about $63 million. While it received three Academy Award nominations and passionate responses from critics who either thought it was a masterpiece or a disaster, audiences flatly rejected it. Two years later, star Margot Robbie still doesn’t understand why.
Robbie, who played troubled “it girl” Nellie LaRoy opposite Brad Pitt and Diego Calva, recently appeared on critic Ben Mankiewicz’s “Talking Pictures” podcast, and the host expressed bafflement about why so many people didn’t like the movie. “I love it. I don’t get it either,” Robbie said. “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. 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?’”
During an appearance on the same podcast earlier this year, writer-director Chazelle said that “Babylon’s” box office failure means the opportunities available to him have changed. “I have no illusions. I’m not gonna get a budget of ‘Babylon’ size any time soon, or at least not on this next one,” he said.
Robbie, of course, walked away from “Babylon” unscathed, and a few months later “Barbie” became the biggest movie of 2023. And if “Babylon” does get reevaluated as a misunderstood classic in the future, she’ll be able to say “I told you so.”
