With Margot Robbie’s “Babylon” being an enormous box office flop, earning only about half of its listed budget, she now has two recent flops including “Amsterdam.” 

You can easily brush this off as a bad or unlucky year for Margot. However, when you take a step back and look at the years before, it looks little worrisome.

Her name alone is enough to gain some of our interest in upcoming projects like Ocean Eleven Remake. But this decade has been rough for her, a few flops, both critically financially and at times even both. It made us re-analyze her career and see where it all went wrong. 

Was Margot Robbie’s career actually as good as we assumed? When did this collapse begin and is it worth all the headlines? And is there still hope for her career?

In this post, we’re going to be diving into Margot Robbie’s past, present and future. We will see if her career can regain that spark that she first had with the “Wolf of Wall Street.“

Margot’s “Good Enough” Career

Margot Robbie’s career can be split into three sections: 

1. Margot’s rise to fame
2. Her time as an established actress 
3. Her downfall 
4. Her Comeback

We’ll be focusing more on the last section. So, let’s quickly run through the earlier parts of her filmography to set the narrative. The other thing we wanted to point out in this section is that her established actress phase wasn’t actually as successful as you might have thought. Something we only just noticed when trying to pinpoint where her streak of flops began.

Margot was born in Australia, and she started her acting career there in 2008. She started with two terrible low-budget films, “Vigilante,” and “ICU“. She had a few TV show appearances that same year. Also, she began her first major recurring role in the Australian soap opera “Neighbors.” 

Originally hired in a guest role, Margot stayed on the show from 2008 to 2011. After which she moved to America to star in the show “Pan Am.” Sadly, the show got cancelled after one season. She then took a shot at a feature film “About Time” which was released with an OK score of 70% but it was beloved by many. 

Margot didn’t have a significant role in “About Time,” at least not in comparison to her follow-up role in the highly successful “The Wolf of Wall Street.” 

This might have been one of the biggest breakthrough roles in recent Hollywood. Her role in “The Wolf of the Wall Street” even won the best newcomer award by Empire. She was described as being Scorsese’s best blonde bombshell discovery since Kathy Moriarty in Raging Bull. Moreover, Margot was also described as funny, and hard and kills every scene she’s in.

The film skyrocketed her career into what it is today, but she would still need a hefty set of films to solidify it. Now, we already mentioned her career isn’t as impressive as we thought. This is in terms of how the films performed and not a jab at her performances. 

Let’s filter for only feature films in that Margot had a decent-sized role. We are left with 20 films released before 2023.

Six of her 20 movies were part of her downfall, which will be going into depth later in this post. That leaves us with 12 films to fly through.  

1. “Z for Zechariah” was straight to video on demand but had pretty good reviews with a 78% score.

2. “Focus” with Will Smith had mediocre reviews of 56% and okay box office numbers. With a budget of $65 million, the film cashed out $158.8 million.  

3. “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” had okay reviews with a 68% score but was a huge box office flop. With a $35 million budget, the film earned only $25.4 million. 

4. “The Legend of Tarzan” had a terrible 35% score and was another box office flop with a budget of $356.7 million but earned $180 million.

5. The 2016 “Suicide Squad,” the first of many Harley Quinn appearances for Margot was a huge box office hit earning $746.b million but was her worst-reviewed film up to this point with a score of 26%.

6. 2017’s “I, Tonya” had OK box office earnings of $53.9 million with a budget of only $11 million. However, the film was successful with the critics getting a whopping 90% score. It even got her a lead actress Oscar nomination. 

7. “Goodbye Christopher Robin” was okay on both fronts. It scored 64% from critics and earned $7.2 million with a budget of $3 million. 

8. “”Peter Rabbit” was a success but only financially. The film cashed $351.3 million with a budget of only $50 million. However, it only scored 63% with the critics. 
9. “Terminal” was another straight-to-VOD release but with terrible reviews of only a 20% score. 

10. “Mary Queen of Scots” had a poor box of his numbers as it earned $46.7 million but did exceed its budget of $25 million. The film had OK reviews with a 64% score.

11. “Dreamland” was yet another straight-to-VOD release but with mediocre reviews with a 58% score. 

To end off this era on a good note, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” was adored by critics with an 85% score, but its box office performance is uncertain as some say it needed $250 million to break even and others say $400 million, as it earned $377.4 million on the box office. 

The above set of films can only be described as mediocre at best. It’s not because of her acting, with her Oscar nomination for “I, Tonya” approved, but maybe it’s a problem with the roles she picked. Something we’ll see more of later.

Nonetheless, Margot Robbie has an even greater influence over these roles than you’d think. 

In 2014, she, her husband, and others formed Lucky Chap Entertainment, a film production company. This company helped produce the following films:

• I, Tonya
• Terminal
• Dreamland
• Birds of Prey
• Promising Young Women

You might have already been able to detect the pattern, but the focus of this company is to push female stories by female storytellers with female leads. 

Margot’s consistent performances and experiences with some of the top directors still make this an impressive career despite how well these films performed individually. Although we’re calling the streak of films “mediocre” it’s about to get much worse.

A Bump in Margot Robbie’s Film Career

Margot Robbie’s downfall consists of six films. We’ll take out “Peter Rabbit 2,” as her role in this sequel was even smaller this time and the film was a big step down in both quality and revenue as compared to its predecessor. 

The remaining five films include another Oscar nomination for “Bombshell“, the lead role in a DC film “Birds of Prey“, an actually good movie “Suicide Squad 2″, a David Russell film “Amsterdam“, and a Damien Chazelle movie “Babylon” starring alongside Brad Pitt.  

This sounds really good on paper, but we all know it didn’t turn out too well, It was much worse than you’d think. So, let’s take a quick look at how these movies performed.

1. “Bombshell” started the flop streak in 2019. Although it did all right with the critics by scoring 68% and even got Margot a supporting actress nomination. You would think she started the new decade on a high note, but the film’s box office numbers were seen as a disappointment. It cost $32 million and pulled out only $61.4 million, which is okay. 

The reason behind the failure of “Bombshell” was that people didn’t really want to spend their money to watch powerful men treat women, especially women who are a bit more of the target audience for this film. 

2. Margot followed this up with her return as Harley Quinn in “Birds of Prey” which would release a few months later. It was another film to do all right with the critics scoring 78% but was a box office flop where it grew to $205 million but needed $300 million to break even. 

So why did it flop? Well, the demand was lower than expected for a Harley Quinn-led movie. Apart from that, the R-rating on its own restricts ticket sales, the title was also a bit confusing. The cherry on top, it was released when the COVID pandemic was developing and 

3. In 2021 we got “Suicide Squad 2,” featuring Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn. This one did actually great with the critics, scoring 90% of the votes. However, we were pretty surprised to hear this flop. They spent $185 million on it but pulled out only $168.7 million.  

It was a bit risky to spend this much, especially since it was an R-rated film. It was riskier because due to COVID Warner Bros had that deal with HBO Max to release films alongside the theatrical run. Sure, this brought in some money for HBO Max, but it also opened the doors for piracy on day one of its releases. 

4. “Amsterdam” received terrible reviews scoring only 33% with the critics. And the box office numbers earned less than half of its listed budget of $80 million. 

This was very surprising considering the film’s cast including Christian Bale and John David Washington. But Disney was unsure how to market its convoluted plot and the critics didn’t help either. 

There was nothing wrong with Margo’s performance in this, but she can be blamed for picking this role, especially given how Infamous the director David O. Russell is with all of his abuse being very public. 

5. To provide the final blow, “Babylon” released OK reviews of 56%, although liked by many. But the terrible box office numbers hit it again. The filmmakers spent a ridiculous amount of money on this type of film. It was estimated to need $250 million worldwide to break even.

This flop was inevitable as people are tired of these prestige films, as most people aren’t interested in Hollywood movies about Hollywood anymore. Although it had a lot of marketing, the trailer only confused people as it was all over the place, and then there were the three hours plus run time. 

But what killed the film from the get-go was releasing it a week after Avatar 2 which would eat up all moviegoer money for the next month. 

Despite this string of underperforming films, Robbie’s career was far from over. Just when it seemed that her star power might be fading, 2024 proved to be a pivotal year for her. A major role in a film that took the world by storm was just what she needed to regain her footing in Hollywood.

So, Margot needs to take a hold of her career before it slips away as she’s getting a lot more chances than other actors. It’s becoming obvious that her name isn’t one to bring in any audience, but that could be more of a problem with how Hollywood operates.

With all that being said, Margot Robbie’s recent films are a return to form, but we have seen bigger comebacks in the past.

Comeback for Margot Robbie’s Career

Flops happen, it’s part of the industry. Some actors don’t get off easy, and a single film can kill their entire career. Such as Elizabeth Barkley in Showgirls, Halle Berry in Catwoman, Mike Myers in Love Guru, and Taylor Lautner in Abduction.

Margot Robbie doesn’t fall into that group, but more so in the consecutive flops deteriorating your career group. There was Taylor Kitsch in the early 2010s, almost the entire Game of Thrones cast soon after the show ended, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s film run in the mid-2010s. 

However, Margot Robbie is not alone, as Amy Adams is kind of going through the same thing right now. 

We honestly believe that Margot Robbie’s career has bounced back. There have been bigger comebacks before, and her career wasn’t even that close to dying. She just needed a little bit of a push.

The years leading up to Deadpool were rough for Ryan Reynolds, but that role single-handedly gave his career a second wind. 

So, what we’re trying to say is that this set of flops doesn’t write Margo’s career off just yet. Plus, a lot of headlines are way overblown. 

She can easily star in a few great films and have us forget about this streak of bad ones or she can star in one film that kills her career entirely, or she can continuously kill and rekindle her career. 

For the recent and future, Margot’s set of films are important to put her on the right trajectory. So, how’s it is for her?

Well, it’s looking interesting, to say the least. We have: 

1. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie 

2. Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City 

3. Ocean’s Eleven Prequel film 

Margot Robbie’s recent release, Barbie, has defied all expectations and become a global sensation. Not only did it gross over $1.4 billion worldwide, but it also reignited discussions around Robbie’s star power. Critics hailed her performance as both satirical and heartfelt, and as a producer, she took on an influential role in bringing this iconic toy to life.

While Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” gained its share of critical acclaim for its unique aesthetic, Robbie’s performance flew somewhat under the radar due to the massive ensemble cast. Nonetheless, it served as another reminder of her versatility, even in smaller roles.

While fans eagerly await the release of the “Ocean’s Eleven” prequel, it’s uncertain how much it will contribute to Robbie’s career renaissance, especially following the monumental success of “Barbie.” However, her chemistry with Ryan Gosling in Barbie bodes well for their upcoming collaboration

Apart from these, there was that canceled female-led “Pirates of the Caribbean” film and a possible return as Harley Quinn. She would return either in a solo film or as part of “Gotham City Sirens.” 

What’s The Future for Hollywood Barbie?

Looking ahead, Margot Robbie is rumoured to be involved in several high-profile projects in 2024, including potential returns as Harley Quinn and other collaborations through her entertainment production company. With her production company having a hand in hits like “Promising Young Woman” and “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey,” it’s clear that Robbie’s influence extends beyond just acting.

So, is this the beginning of the end for Margot Robbie? Hopefully not, hopefully, a year from now we’ll be laughing at the idea of ever being worried and writing this post. 

Sources:

Wikipedia contributors. “Margot Robbie.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 6 September 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margot_Robbie.

“Margot Robbie’s Acting and Producing Plans After the Success of Barbie in 2023.” 9Celebrity, 15 August 2023, https://celebrity.nine.com.au/latest/margot-robbie-plans-after-barbie-production-company

“Loving Margot Robbie – 2023.” Loving Margot Robbie, 19 November 2023, https://margot-robbie.com.