Barbie has reached more than US$1 billion in box office sales since it was released in cinema less than three weeks ago, distributor Warner Bros Discovery Inc (NASDAQ:WBD) revealed.
Hanging just outside the top 50 highest-grossing box office films of all time, the comedy/drama brought in around US$460 million in revenues from US theatres and over US$570 million from international sales.
Greta Gerwig is now the first woman director to gross one billion dollars in sales on her own, having already smashed the record for the best opening weekend for a female-directed film.
Barbie, played by Margot Robbie, and Ken, played by Ryan Gosling Source BBC
Jeff Goldstein and Andrew Cripps, distribution chiefs at Warner Bros, said in a company statement: “We’re not often rendered speechless by a film’s performance, but Barbillion has blown even our most optimistic predictions out of the water.
“This is a watershed moment for Barbie and no one but Greta Gerwig could have brought this cross-generational icon and her world to life in such a funny, emotional and entertaining story.”
Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s gritty retelling of the birth of the atomic bomb, has been pitted against Barbie – as well as brought together through the ‘Barbenheimer’ meme - after the two films were released on the same day.
However, box office sales for the thriller are just over US$550 million in the same period, representing a gap of almost double between sales of the two films.
Cinemas, and moviegoers, may yet be the true winner of the recent battle as Vue saw revenues and footfall soar and Cineworld, which has been embroiled with bankruptcy woes for well over a year, confirmed it was being taken over by lenders.