Barbie makes one billion in under 20 days.
The new Barbie movie seemed to be a sure box office smash hit. But making a billion at the box office in 17 days? That might not have been what everyone thought. Margot Robbie, the star of Barbie, even made a comment when trying to get the film made that it would be a billion-dollar movie at the box office. At the time, she thought she was overselling, but not now.
Of course, this is due in part to many things. We have the double feature madness of Oppenheimer and Barbie, which had everyone seeing the polar opposite two films back to back. We had a new reason to go to theaters, along with the massive unique marketing of the double feature.
This summer has been a massive box office resurgence as well. With the new Mission Impossible coming out swinging at the box office, Barbie seemed to take the ball and run with it from there. What we are looking at right now is the fastest-selling tickets for a single movie in Warner Bros’ 100-year history. The last film to do that was the final Harry Potter film which made one billion in 19 days. But Barbie has done this at 17.
Along with this, Greta Gerwig became the first female director to have a billion-dollar box office film. Only 28 other people have done this, all men. She also had the best opening weekend for a female director. More records for Ms. Gerwig are sure to come.
Right now, Barbie has been the number-one film at the box office in the US and Canada for 3 weeks in a row. This has not been without steady competition with the new Mission Impossible, Oppenheimer, Sound of Freedom, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and Meg 2: The Trench. All of those films are doing very well at the box office as well. So safe to say that movie theaters are heating up right now.