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Barbie Races Past $150 Million at Global Box Office

Warner Bros’ Barbie has soared to an estimated $158.9m worldwide through Friday with a $337m opening weekend.

As of last Saturday morning, the tentpole has swiftly cinched $88.4m in international box office earnings, with an additional $70.5m claimed in North America, including revenue from Thursday previews. On Friday, the movie had garnered $43m internationally through showings in 69 markets across 25,451 screens, boosted by its $8.3m debut in the UK which marks it as the biggest opening day since the pandemic. This has allowed it to claim the top spot and secure a remarkable 60% market share among the top 5 films.

Such remarkable performance has supported the film to attain the third biggest Friday for a Warner Bros film in the market behind Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Batman v. Superman.

Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is the best launch of 2023 so far. It overtook the $146.4m earned by The Super Mario Bros. Movie back in April and has since been termed as the highest opening for a film directed by a woman (previously held by Captain Marvel’s $153.4m in 2019). It stands as the biggest debut from a non-sequel, non-remake in July (ahead of 2016’s The secret Life of Pets on $104.4m) and the biggest debut by a film based on a toy (surpasses 2011’s Transformers: Dark of The Moon on $115.9m).

The talents involved will have reasons to celebrate as well. The movie has generated career-best debuts for its stars, including Robbie, whose previous best debut was in 2016’s Suicide Squad with $133.7m, Gosling, whose highest debut was in 2017’s Blade Runner 2049 with a $32.9m earning, and Gerwig, whose best debut was 2019’s Little Women which scored $16.8m.

For her impressive works, Gerwig is predicted to remain in the big leagues. She has reportedly been hired by Netflix to direct at least 2 features from C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia fantasy book series.

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