‘Barbie’ Earns $1 Billion at the Box Office in 17 Days
In a year that started with a major theater chain filing for bankruptcy, this summer is looking up, and Barbie breaking records.
The theater business has been in bad shape since the pandemic caused a worldwide shutdown. A combination of folks not feeling safe, the growing cost of dinner and a movie, and better tech for home setups caused folks to get takeout and watch something on streaming. Lack of ticket sales led to one major chain filing for bankruptcy earlier this year, and some not so well thought out plans to stay solvent.
This summer may turn that around. Audiences are flocking to see the big titles of the summer, some seeing them multiple times on the big screen. The billion-dollar movie is back, and they’re not from Marvel or Star Wars.
This Year’s Box Office
Given the total franchise movie takeover pre-pandemic, this year is a mixed bag with two non-franchise films on top. While Oppenheimer, an art house drama (Nolan has his own draw that’s helping here), isn’t in the top five, it’s doing much better than expected–pulling in half a billion with several weeks to go, and it’s now the biggest WWII movie ever. The combination of it and Barbie being released on the same weekend has been bonkers.
We’ve still got The Marvels (Captain Marvel made over a billion), Dune (didn’t crack the top ten in 2021), Wonka (with a family movie being on top right now, I’m not going to discount it), and Aquaman (first one made $1.15 billion in 2018) on the slate this fall.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the year shakes out.
Barbie Hits $1 Billion
The super pink movie hit $1 billion this weekend. It hit $459.4 million in North America and crossed $1 billion globally. It’s the second this year, alongside The Super Mario Bros, that brought in $1.35 billion during its theater run.
Barbie is different, though. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is the first live-action movie in history directed by a woman solo to join the billion-dollar ranks. It’s the largest live-action film of all time domestically from a female director, beating out Patty Jenkins’ Wonderwoman and Captain Marvel, which was directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.
Margot Robbie called it during one of the movie’s pitch meetings:
I think my pitch in the green-light meeting was the studios have prospered so much when they’re brave enough to pair a big idea with a visionary director. And then I gave a series of examples like, ‘dinosaurs and Spielberg,’ […] pretty much naming anything that’s been incredible and made a ton of money for the studios over the years.
Advertisement“And I was like, ‘And now you’ve got Barbie and Greta Gerwig.’ And I think I told them that it’d make a billion dollars, which maybe I was overselling, but we had a movie to make, OK?!”
– via The Wrap
The movie has proven that women-led projects, made with women in mind, can make bank. The movie-going populace is broad and diverse, and they want to see stories they can relate to. I hope we see more like this.
Barbie is currently in theaters. It’s fun and has some things to say; you should see it.
