Barbie, unsurprisingly, has broken yet another box office record. Amidst a wildly successful theatrical run, Barbie had already become the top-grossing movie from a female director, made more money than Oppenheimer, and become Margot Robbie’s biggest movie, but the film then quickly set its pink-tinted sights on a more challenging hurdle.
The Greta Gerwig picture was soon in touching distance of becoming one of the highest-grossing movies of 2023, if not the highest. In its path remained Super Mario, however. Despite the reviews not being good, the animated feature stood at the number 1 spot before the Barbie cast came along to burst its bubble.
As things now stand, Barbie is the most successful of 2023’s new movies domestically, period, after pushing the Illumination flick off its platform.
This week, Barbie became the highest-grossing movie at the 2023 domestic box office with over $574.2 million, surpassing Super Mario, whose theatrical run tapped out at that amount.
The last time Warner Bros. took home the prize of the top-grossing movie of the year domestically was with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II back in 2011 ($381 million).
It’s fair to say Barbie was a big risk for everyone involved — if you have a good memory, you may recall the huffs and puffs from folks when the endeavor was first announced. A lethal-to-competition marketing campaign and the Barbenheimer phenomenon made the difference. The first look at Margot Robbie in costume was enough to bring many people on board.
Fast forward to now, and it has more than earned its commercial success, with The Digital Fix’s Barbie review stating, “It’s ironic that a movie about one of the most famous pieces of plastic in existence could become the most real movie we’ve seen in a long, long while.” For Gerwig, whose other films are equally as incredible, the wins keep on coming.
Once you’ve read up on how to watch Barbie ahead of its streaming release, check out the 10 Barbie Easter eggs you probably missed, our thoughts on a potential Barbie 2 release date, and 20 things you didn’t know about Barbie. We’ve also got a story on the Narnia reboot from Gerwig, and a list of the best movies and best Margot Robbie movies to keep you busy.