Greta Gerwig’s Barbie Achieves $1 Billion in Worldwide Box Office Sales

After just three weeks since its opening on July 21, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie has surpassed the $1 billion mark in estimated global box office ticket sales, as confirmed by ComScore on Sunday.

Being based on Mattel’s iconic and highly profitable doll, Barbie is the second film of 2023 to achieve this milestone, following the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, owned by Comcast’s Universal Pictures, which has garnered a massive $1.35 billion worldwide according to BoxOfficeMojo.

Directed and co-written by Gerwig herself, Barbie is set to become the most successful film directed solely by a woman since Wonder Woman, which earned a total of $821.8 million globally. The Associated Press shared that there are three other films co-directed by women, namely Frozen ($1.3 billion) and Frozen 2 ($1.45 billion), both co-directed by Jennifer Lee, and Captain Marvel ($1.1 billion), co-directed by Anna Boden.

In North America alone, Barbie has generated an estimated $459.4 million in box office receipts, including a remarkable $53 million in the past weekend, as stated by ComScore.

Furthermore, other notable film releases this weekend in the domestic market include Warner Bros.’ Meg 2: The Trench earning $30 million, Universal Pictures’ Oppenheimer with $28.7 million, and Paramount Studios’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem ranking fourth with $28 million, according to ComScore.

Regarding worldwide box office sales, Oppenheimer, which focuses on the life of American theoretical physicist known as the “father of the atomic bomb,” secured the second position with a cumulative total of $400.4 million by July 30, as reported by ComScore.

Interestingly, Oppenheimer also premiered on the same day as Barbie, resulting in a social media trend called “Barbenheimer” and an impressive $302 million opening weekend.

Since then, approximately 55.5 million moviegoers have experienced both films, with 39 million viewers for the PG-13-rated Barbie and 16.5 million for the R-rated Oppenheimer, as per data analytics firm EntTelligence.