Barbenheimer lives! Barbie and Oppenheimer have become two of the biggest success stories of the summer, if not the year. Oppenheimer has now crossed $550 million at the domestic and international box office, while Barbie is now a billion-dollar juggernaut. And that’s just the global box office – think about how the film is fueling sales across the board for Mattel and all of the cross-promotional products. Well, Greta Gerwig is now the first-ever woman (solo) to cross the $1 billion box office threshold.

“Barbie” is saying “hiya” to the billion-dollar club. Greta Gerwig’s pink-coated fantasy comedy has surpassed $1 billion at the global box office, including $459 million in North America and $572 million internationally. This makes Gerwig the first-ever solo female filmmaker with a billion-dollar film.

Three other billion-dollar blockbusters were co-directed by women, including “Frozen” ($1.3 billion) and “Frozen 2” ($1.45 billion) both co-directed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck, as well as “Captain Marvel” ($1.1 billion), co-directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.

“Barbie” is hitting the coveted milestone after just 17 days of release, becoming the fastest Warner Bros. release (and eighth in the studio’s 100-year history) to join the $1 billion club. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” previously held that record at 19 days.

It’s only the second blockbuster this year and the sixth of the pandemic-era to cross $1 billion, following “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Jurassic World Dominion” and “Avatar: The Way of Water.”

“It’s a good club to be in,” Jeff Goldstein, the studio’s president of domestic distribution, said during a Sunday morning phone call. In a note to press, Goldstein and Andrew Cripps, president of international distribution, admitted they are not often “rendered speechless by a film’s performance.” But Barbillion — as they’ve dubbed the box office milestone — has “blown even our most optimistic predictions out of the water.”

“This is a watershed moment for ‘Barbie,’ and no one but Greta Gerwig could have brought this cross-generational icon and her world to life in such a funny, emotional and entertaining story, one that is resonating with all four quadrants of moviegoers and literally turning the entire world pink,” Goldstein and Cripps said in the joint statement. “Long lines and repeat viewings prove that movies are back in a big, big way, and we look forward to seeing just how far ‘Barbie’ can go in the real world.”

[From Variety]

Yeah, I kind of want to see Barbie again too. I want to enjoy the costumes and set design even more, and there are so many wry little jokes in the script too. I agree that Greta deserves so much credit for this success, but it’s actually starting to bug me that these industry analysts aren’t giving Margot Robbie her flowers. Margot’s LuckyChap executive-produced it, she pitched it to Mattel and Warner Bros, she hired Greta, she fought for Greta and Noah Baumbach’s script AND on top of all that, she was a pitch-perfect Barbie.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images, Warner Bros/Barbie.