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.”
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.
My 18 year old daughter already saw it but went with my husband and I yesterday. We all wore our pink tshirts. Afterwards she said… Mom had a tear rolling down your cheek at just the moment I thought you would.
Ben Shapiro is still big Ma over Barbie and now claims it did so much better than he said it would because he overestimated the taste and intelligence levels of the American public – he thinks women are stupid and have bad taste
Marc Maron called the Barbie movie a “f***ing masterpiece.”
Variety article did say it resonated with all four quadrants of moviegoers, so Shapiro 🙄 is wrong to blame only women.
I’m so glad its so successful, and I’m glad Oppenheimer is as well (we’re seeing that next weekend.) I just think it shows that there is a big place for original storytelling (yes, Barbie is based on a toy and Oppenheimer on history, but I mean as opposed to more Marvel, more remakes, etc). People want to see new, interesting, fun movies. They want to see well done thought provoking movies. There’s obviously still a place for Marvel, Star Wars, etc. But there’s a place for new stuff as well.
Congrats to Margot and Greta and the whole cast/crew.
This right here. Turns out when you offer actually new stuff instead of the 200th chapter of some superhero franchise, people might actually be interested.
First movie for me since way before the pandemic, and I didn’t even like Barbie or any of the lead actors. I went because of the feminist statement and because I wanted to have a reason to wear pink and because I had been wanting to go to the cinema for literal years but there just wasn’t anything remotely interesting for me (plus pandemic). Really good movie, I am considering to go watch it again.
I saw it opening weekend with a friend, and just took my husband yesterday. Yes, we wore pink. I’ll probably go again by myself this week. I loved seeing it again and being able to catch all the details in the background. Plus I knew the words to “I’m Just Ken” this time around 😄
It’s interesting how often the top grossing or most acclaimed films that are directed by women (City of God, for example) are also co-directed by a man. Like the men always insist on having a piece of the pie… If they think from the beginning that the film will be successful.
Other times when the movie was a gamble they let a woman bite the bullet and direct the first film (Twilight; Fifty Shades of Grey) but once it was successful they didn’t call her back again and all of the sequels were directed by men. 🤔 Men don’t usually co-direct films together unless they are brothers (Coen, Farrelly) but it’s surprisingly common for women to have a male co-director or even worse the woman is fired in the middle of filming and replaced by a man, so now they are innocuously listed as “co-directors.” That’s what happened to Brenda Chapman when she was making Brave.
I went for a second time on Saturday as I had friends visiting and they hadn’t been. Even without them, the friend I saw it with the first time and I would have been back as there were just so many jokes and we wanted another go.
Interestingly this time it was in the biggest screen at our local independent cinema and it was completely full. It’s one of those places where you can be served food and drinks at your seat and the staff have clearly never had to deal with screenings being so full so frequently (I’ve been a number of times this year and don’t think any have been more than half full to date) and they were struggling. GO BARBIE.
To me the stat of the movie was Alan he had few lines but he stood out a lot.
I agree it is tiresome that Margot Robbie is not getting more acknowledgement for Barbie. But you know what I really hope from this is…I hope she is getting a large part of the backend for Barbie! RDJr got a huge backend from Iron Man that it made him a bazilillian $ (I KNOW). n
Yeah, every interview I see is praises Greta and Ryan, and sure, they deserve kudos. But the movie would also not exist without Margot’s commitment as a producer, star power as the face of Mattel’s prized product and Margot’s and America’s surprisingly touching performances.