Margot Robbie still can’t make sense as to why her film Babylon was a box office flop – and is remaining hopeful that it’ll eventually become a huge success.
Released in cinemas in 2022, the Damien Chazelle directed movie is set in Hollywood in the 1920s before the Hays Code was introduced, prohibiting profanity, nudity, drug use, sexual ‘perversion,’ and inter-racial relationships on screen.
Barbie actress Margot, 34, starred alongside industry heavyweights Brad Pitt, Tobey Maguire, and Olivia Wilde.
But despite having a budget of $80 million and a league of huge names, the film flopped at the box office and took home a pitiful $64.9 million – and no one is more perplexed by its underwhelming performance than Margot.
‘I don’t get it either,’ the new mom said of its disastrous running.
‘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.’
Margot Robbie still can’t make sense as to why her film Babylon was a box office flop
The Barbie actress starred alongside industry heavyweights Brad Pitt, Tobey Maguire, and Olivia Wilde in the 2022 film
Speaking on The Talking Pictures podcast, she continued: ‘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 like, “How is that possible?”‘
Babylon tells a tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, that traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.
In the film, A-lister Brad took on the role of famous actor Jack Conrad, known for his party-hard lifestyle, multiple marriages, affairs, and divorces.
Margot played overnight star Nellie LaRoy, navigating her way through the industry by self-destructing via drugs, parties and sexual encounters.
The film shows character Manny Torres (Diego Calva) entering the high-profile world and becoming smitten with Nellie.
It opens with a wild celebrity soiree filled with sex, drugs, nudity and booze – which Wolf Of Wall Street actress Margot described as an ‘party-slash-orgy.’
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Babylon holds an approval rating of just 57 per cent based on 363 reviews.
Babylon flopped at the box office and took home a pitiful $64.9 million despite a budget of $80 million
The site’s critics consensus reads: ‘Babylon’s overwhelming muchness is exhausting, but much like the industry it honors, its well-acted, well-crafted glitz and glamour can often be an effective distraction.’
Viewers did not mince their words when it came to reviewing Babylon.
‘Surely there came a point in this extravaganza when the director, the producers, the actors, and the people who did the catering, began to feel it had all gone wrong,’ one said.
Echoing a similar sentiment, another wrote: ‘So bad it’s shocking.
‘Such of waste of acting talent.
‘This is what happens when Hollywood calls someone a genius and lets them create without ever having to think twice about any of their decisions.’
