‘Barbie’ Is A Smash Hit At The Box Office

Barbie is an icon and her power has proved potent at the box office.

Greta Gerwig can add another feather to her cap as the female director who broke box office records. The world’s most famous fashion doll debuted to $155 million at the North American box office alone. With International numbers still rolling in, Barbie is a runaway cinematic success. Greta Gerwig is breaking the glass ceiling that many female directors face when working on large scale commercial projects. To put things into perspective, Greta Gerwig’s  Barbie movie opened to a staggering $162 million at the North American box office over the July 21-23 weekend. It’s a historic sum that easily surpasses the $103.3 domestic opening of Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman. The closest comparable number was in 2019, when Captain Marvel also broke the glass ceiling, debuting at $153 million. However, that movie was co-directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.

Barbie scored the top opening of the year to date, as well as one of the top openings since the pandemic, and it towered over Christopher Nolan’s male-skewing Oppenheimer this weekend. (Oppenheimer still did well in its own right for a three-hour historical drama in opening to $82.4 million). Barbie‘s stunning opening is a testament to Director Gerwig’s vision of bringing Barbie to the big screen, as well as to the marketing campaign orchestrated by Warner Bros. and toymaker Mattel.

The Barbie movie, starring Margot Robbie in the titular role and Ryan Gosling as Ken, has transformed into what is arguably the movie event of the year so far. Women of all ages and girls made up nearly 70 percent of the audience, according to exit surveys. Many women can be seen across social media all weekend long dressing up in shades of pink to celebrate the fashion icon as they took over cinemas to celebrate the film’s release.

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Barbie, is also strutting to big numbers in certain overseas markets. The film opened to a huge $182 million from 70 markets for a global start of $337 million ahead of Wonder Woman‘s worldwide launch of $228.3 million. And the numbers are still rolling in.