‘Barbie’ Poised to Become Highest-Grossing Domestic Film of 2023

Since its debut on July 21, the cinematic sensation “Barbie” has been rewriting records, and now it’s on the brink of claiming another milestone. With an approximate difference of $48 million trailing behind “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” writer-director Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” seems poised to clinch the top spot for the highest-grossing domestic film of the year 2023.

The box office juggernaut “Barbie” made a remarkable splash by collecting a staggering $155 million domestically in its opening weekend. Moreover, it recently joined the exclusive $1 billion club in global box office earnings, a prestigious achievement shared by a select 50 films throughout history when adjusted for inflation.

Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, emphasized to CNN that this achievement solidifies the film’s remarkable performance. Even as the initial fervour tapered in the past week, “Barbie” continues to maintain its grip on theatres, with an estimated weekend earning of $33.7 million.

The comedy centred around the iconic doll has notched up approximately $525 million in domestic revenue and nearly $1.2 billion worldwide. “Barbie” demonstrated its resilience by amassing $10 million on a single Friday and achieving an average daily earning of over $11.3 million between August 5-11. Impressively, “Barbie” crossed the $500 million domestic mark within its third week, surpassing the time taken by “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” to achieve a similar milestone by more than five weeks.

The simultaneous release of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” affectionately dubbed “Barbenheimer,” has turned into a cultural phenomenon that may breathe new life into the struggling movie theatre industry. Together, their joint release weekend became the fourth highest-grossing weekend in North American cinema history, accumulating a staggering $302 million. Unlike most top-grossing films that rely on elaborate action sequences and special effects, “Barbenheimer” showcases a unique blend of content.

Paul Dergarabedian expressed his astonishment at this unforeseen pop culture phenomenon. He underscored that the movie’s marketing campaign foreshadowed its monumental success. Dergarabedian remarked, “The marketing campaign for ‘Barbie’ set into motion a chain of events that led to the word ‘Barbenheimer’ being added to the popular lexicon by virtue of its shared release date with ‘Oppenheimer.’ This signalled that something extraordinary and unprecedented was on the horizon, promising a much larger-than-expected outcome for the film.”

Margot Robbie, who produced the movie and portrayed the titular character, shared her prediction during a greenlight meeting with studios. In an interview with Collider, she recounted, “I think I told them they’d make a billion dollars, which, maybe I was overselling, but we had a movie to make!”