“Barbie” has legs. Director Greta Gerwig 's film phenomenon remained a runaway No. 1 at the box office in its fourth week, bringing in $33.7 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The Margot Robbie-led and produced film from Warner Bros., still in 4,137 theaters, refused to drop off as most box-office toppers have this year, surpassing $500 million in North America overall a week after it crossed the $1 billion mark globally — a record for a female director.
The second half of the “Barbenheimer” duo, “Oppenheimer,” returned to the No. 2 spot in its own fourth week after a week at No. 3 overall. The Christopher Nolan-directed film from Universal Pictures brought in $18.8 million from 3,761 locations for an overall domestic total of $264.3 million.
The top pair had thin competition. The week's only major wide release, Universal's “The Last Voyage of the Demeter,” finished fifth with a $6.5 million opening weekend.
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” in its second week, earned $15.6 million domestically for third place, and the Jason Statham shark sequel, “Meg 2: The Trench,” brought in $12.7 million, dropping from second to fifth in its second week in theaters.
“Barbie” is poised to become 2023’s top film. Its $526.3 million domestic total and $1.18 billion global bankroll currently sits second behind “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which earned $574.2 million North America, and $1.358 billion globally in the spring. It's also the second-highest grossing film in the history of “Warner Bros.,” behind only 2011’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.”
The sustained performance of the Mattel movie continues to flip the script on what had been a weak year in theaters, with major sequels underperforming including “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" and “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part I,” which remained in the top 10 this week with $4.7 million.
“'Barbie' is as hot a commodity as it was in its first week. It's just ensconced at the No. 1 spot, and I don’t know if it’s going anywhere soon,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “And Oppenheimer right there with it. They’re just drafting off each other in this box office NASCAR race.”
The midsummer “Barbenheimer” put the industry-wide summer total ahead of 2022. It was lagging behind just a month ago.
“If you think of what ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ together — just those two movies — have contributed in these weekends at the box office, it’s really a staggering number," Dergarabedian said.
All movies combined this summer have earned $3.63 billion in North America. With significant releases remaining in August, including DC Comics' “Blue Beetle,” the video game adaptation “Gran Turismo,” and the Denzel Washington sequel “The Equalizer 3,” the box office has a chance of reaching the $4 billion that was considered a domestic benchmark for a strong summer before the pandemic.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
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24 Comments
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dagon
Since that synergy is a NG in Japan maybe instead of complaining the local studio reps could make their own, like pairing Barbie with Crayon Shin-chan?
Jay
The final outcome of the film proves that patriarchy makes everyone happier and more successful. Barbie herself decides she prefers it in the very end, choosing to go into the real world to stay and try to take on the greatest job a woman possibly could: to become a mother.
PTownsend
“Barbie” has given fright wing pols and their media another way to distract from their inability to do anything that might benefit those outside their bubble.
Asiaman7
This movie is fun, creative, wacky, cute, cerebral, and surprisingly deep.
”They’ve brought these figures to life with infectious energy and a knowing wink. ‘Barbie’ can be hysterically funny, with giant laugh-out-loud moments generously scattered throughout.” 3.5/4.0 stars — RogerEbert.com
Strangerland
You do have to wonder how much right-wing freakouts have contributed to the success of this movie. I admit, I'm interested to see it due to the cultural hype, whereas when I'd heard about it during development, I had no interest whatsoever. Now I'm curious what they're freaking out about.
Jay
It has little to do with politics and more to do with male feminists, who often assume their worldview is much more common and universal than it actually turns out to be.
Express sister
It has little to do with politics and more to do with male feminists, who often assume their worldview is much more common and universal than it actually turns out to be.
”Feminism has nothing to do with politics” - someone who obviously knows a lot about politics and feminism
falseflagsteve
Barbie is and always has been for children, primarily little girls. I fail to understand the popularity of this and I find it’s a warning to us all about the declining maturity of society.
Elvis is here
Maybe you should watch the movie, rather than standing on your soap box. Again. And again.
u_s__reamer
"Barbie" is an American cultural product that will sail over the heads of a Japanese audience. Sure, her pink sugary candy-floss world will go over with the "Hello Kitty" crowd and cos-playing aficionados, but the barbs and sarcastic asides and the cynicism between the lines that Greta Gerwig has undoubtedly inserted will fly under their radar, which, of course, makes the film all the more palatable for Japanese consumers.
relic1980
"Barbie is and always has been for children, primarily little girls. I fail to understand the popularity of this and I find it’s a warning to us all about the declining maturity of society."
And those little girls grew up to be women who have a fondness for the things they grew up with. Nostalgia is a powerful motivator, and that's true for men as well as women.
Cheers Mate!
It is worth the price of the ticket?
Express sister
“Judging a book by its cover is actually good and cool and I love doing it. I don’t have to watch a movie to know everything about it.” - a wise man who is very adept at media criticism.
Jimizo
So this ‘Go woke, go broke’ thing isn’t a thing now? It’s just that I’m not hearing it.
餓死鬼
It did go broke, as in it go broke box office records!
Alfie Noakes
Yes, I watched it last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Lots of references to other movies to spot, including Monty Python's Holy Grail, Citizen Kane, Grease, Matrix, Singing in the Rain and many more, great performances from Robbie and Gosling, fantastic costumes, lighting and production design, very meta and layered story. Helen Mirren narrates and Rob Brydon even pops up in a brief cameo.
Some great lines too: "When I found out the patriarchy wasn't about horses, I didn't like it anymore." It's not really a kids film though, I think they'd probably be bored. Smart, funny and surprisingly serious.
WA4TKG
See ? Ignorance IS Bliss.
Bob Fosse
It was great. Not a ‘kids’ movie at all. Those who are saying otherwise haven’t seen it or are just repeating what they read in a tweet by some dimwit conservative professional outrager who also hasn’t seen it.
virusrex
I am still surprised by the open circular reasoning some people use to criticize the movie.
"This is a children's movie"
but you have not yet even seeing it, how can you say it is for children?
"I haven't because I don't see children's movies"
smithinjapan
Oh no! They might have to show it in Japan AFTER ALL??
Wandora
If people have seen the movie, let them criticise it. Free speech works for all parts of the political spectrum, even though the overly-loud minority make that hard to believe. Likewise, if you haven't seen the movie, don't presume to defend it.
garypen
It was released here three days ago.
garypen
But, it's the overly loud minority doing most of the criticizing, even though they haven't seen it.
Gene Hennigh
This film is indicative of Hollywood's inept film making. When was the last time you saw a film that had an original story or that was inventive in any way at all? Hollywood used to be able to make a grown up's film, but now we get superheroes and dolls. Watch a foreign film (even one with subtitles) and you can see many good stories, good film work, and inventive characters and story-lines. Hollywood makes pablum and people eat it up.