‘Barbie’ tops $1b at global box office
Director Greta Gerwig's blockbuster Barbie crossed $1 billion in revenue internationally on Sunday. The long-awaited cinematic debut of the iconic Mattel doll has swiftly become the year's second-largest release, achieving this impressive feat in just over two weeks following its highly anticipated premiere.
Barbie, an instant blockbuster starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has grossed about $459 million domestically and $572 million internationally since its premiere on July 21, according to Box Office Mojo.
Barbie, one of the summer's most highly anticipated movies, grossed more than $155 million in the US box office over its opening weekend, including a massive $70.5 million opening day, making it the biggest opening weekend of the year and the biggest ever opening weekend for a female-directed movie—Barbie went on to earn another $29 million on its second Friday and nearly $34.6 million last Saturday.
The film added $53 million domestically from Friday to Sunday of this week, leading the box office for the third weekend in a row.
The hot-pink Warner Bros Pictures movie is now the second biggest release of the year, only behind Nintendo's The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which has grossed a whopping $1.35 billion worldwide since its release in April, including more than $574 million in the U.S.
In its first two weeks, Barbie has surpassed Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, which has made $845 million worldwide, including $359 million domestically, as well as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ($476 million worldwide, $214.5 million domestically), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ($683 million worldwide, $379 million domestically), Disney's The Little Mermaid ($564 million worldwide, $297 million domestically) and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One ($451 million worldwide, $142 million domestically).
Despite Barbie's accolades, it's fallen short of several box office records, and has a ways to go before it approaches James Cameron's extraterrestrial sci-fi thriller Avatar (2009), which has collected a record $2.92 billion worldwide, or 2019's Avengers: Endgame ($2.80 billion). Barbie is also well behind last year's long-awaited Avatar sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, which has made $2.32 billion since its release. Barbie also fell more than $90 million short of Avengers: Endgame's $157.5 million record for biggest domestic box office premiere, and grossed less on its first Monday and Tuesday than a pair of superhero blockbusters, including 2018's Black Panther ($40.1 million on its first Monday), and 2019's Spider-Man: Far From Home ($39.2 million on its first Tuesday).