They say I can open movies, and that’s nice in that it puts into people’s minds that women can do it. It’s not just Kevin Costner, not just Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not just the guys.

Roberts is responding to the industry idea of a “movie opener”—a star whose name can drive a strong opening weekend. She treats the compliment as personally pleasant but emphasizes its broader cultural value: it challenges the assumption that only male stars can be reliable box-office anchors. By naming prominent male leads (Costner, Schwarzenegger), she points to a long-standing pattern in Hollywood marketing and financing that centers men as default commercial guarantees. The remark frames her own bankability as evidence for gender parity in audience appeal and as a corrective to the way success is often narrated as a male prerogative.