Since Barbie arrived in theaters in July, there has hardly been a week where it didn’t make the news for tumbling one record or the other. Almost two months after its debut, the movie has broken yet another record and seems poised to break even more.
According to a recent Variety report, Barbie has raked in a staggering $626 million at the domestic box office. With this number, the doll-turned-big-screen sensation toppled Marvel’s The Avengers as the 11th highest-grossing movie of all time at the domestic box office.
Barbie’s current domestic gross moves it one step toward the 10 highest grossing movies at the domestic box office. However, it needs to gross about $28 million more to break into that highly coveted rank. The film above it is Jurassic World which grossed $653.4 million during its run in 2015.
Greta Gerwig’s cinematic masterpiece has been stealing records left and right since its debut. August saw Barbie knock The Super Mario Bros. Movie off its perch and become the year’s highest-grossing movie. Before that, the film grossed $1 billion within 17 days of its release to become the highest-grossing live-action film ever to be solely directed by a woman.
The toy-based movie also has the record for the highest-grossing domestic opener ever for a non-superhero movie after it pulled a jaw-dropping $162 million in its opening weekend. That’s nearly double what Oppenheimer, the second half of the Barbenheimer phenomenon, managed!
By the way, Barbie also stands tall on the global stage, even though it hasn’t quite performed on the same level as it has domestically.
With a global box office haul of $1.4 billion, it’s the highest-grossing film of the year so far. Barring a miracle, it will still have this record by the end of the year. What’s more? The Margot Robbie-led movie’s gross also makes it the 14th highest-grossing film ever.
In an exclusive interview with Variety last week, Warner Bros. revealed their plans for the movie during the upcoming awards season. The studio confirmed its plans to nominate the film for many awards at the Academy Awards, including Best Original Screenplay, Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, and so on.
Given the film’s performance, we would be surprised if it doesn’t pick up at least one award in the major categories that night.
Barbie’s overwhelming success has since inspired Mattel, the company behind the toy line, to intensify plans to adapt its other IPs for the big screen. The company’s CEO Ynon Kreiz hailed Barbie as the template for their future endeavors. The company is working on Polly Pocket, Barney, and Hot Wheels. There is no doubt they will be trying to replicate Barbie’s success but we doubt if it is possible for any other project to achieve those heights again anytime soon.
Barbie is now showing on streaming platforms and will twirl into IMAX theaters from September 22.
