Barbie box office collection – Makes history with $1 billion at the box office

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08th Aug, 2023. 12:42 am
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In a truly exhilarating turn of events, the much-anticipated film “Barbie” has unequivocally answered the billion-dollar question with an emphatic “yes.”

In an astonishingly short span of just under three weeks since its release, the cinematic creation of writer-director Greta Gerwig has amassed a staggering $1.03 billion in global box office earnings, a figure officially confirmed by Warner Bros. These numbers not only solidify the film’s position as a blockbuster but also mark a momentous achievement for Gerwig herself, as she becomes the first female director to independently helm a movie that crosses the billion-dollar mark.

It comes as no great surprise that “Barbie” has managed to achieve such remarkable success. As one half of the widely-discussed and shared “Barbenheimer” sensation, the film’s popularity was already buzzing even before its release. Now, as it stands triumphantly in its own right, the extraordinary triumph of the doll’s journey to the silver screen is indeed a foreseeable outcome.

“I’ve been in this game for 30 years and the Barbie and Barbenheimer phenomenon is as unprecedented as it was unpredictable,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.

According to Dergarabedian, only about 50 films in history, unadjusted for inflation, have hit the billion-dollar mark.

He added the movie’s marketing campaign was the first hint “Barbie” would be a box office smash. “The marketing campaign for ‘Barbie’ set into motion a chain of events that led to the word ‘Barbenheimer’ being added to the popular lexicon by virtue of its shared release date with ‘Oppenheimer,’ and that’s when we all knew something very special and unique was going to create a much bigger than expected outcome for the film not only for the opening weekend, but for its global run in theaters.”

In an interview with Collider last month, Margot Robbie — who produced the movie in addition to playing the titular character — shared a premonition she had at a greenlight meeting with studios.

“I think I told them they’d make a billion dollars which, maybe I was overselling, but we had a movie to make!” she said.

“Barbie” was distributed by Warner Bros., which is owned by CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.

The movie’s worldwide triumph was fueled by its impressive performance at the box office in some of the planet’s biggest movie markets, such as the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Australia. Since its debut, the film has held the top spot in these markets each weekend, as reported by the tracking site Box Office Mojo.

“Barbie” also performed well in China, the second-largest market in the world and one that has becoming increasingly insular over the past few years. According to experts, franchise films like “Transformers,” “Fast and Furious,” and Marvel’s superhero movies tend to perform well with Chinese audiences. While “Barbie” is similar to “Transformers” in that it’s based on an existing toy, it’s “not an IP that generations of Chinese have grown up with, so you lack the intergenerational appeal that a film like ‘Barbie’ has in the United States,” said Michael Berry, director of UCLA’s Center for Chinese Studies.

However, Berry, who delves into the realms of Chinese cinema and popular culture, points out that Barbie continues to maintain her iconic status on a global scale. This enduring popularity provides the film with a strong foundation upon which it can confidently launch itself into the realm of international recognition.

“Children in hundreds of countries… have grown up with the dolls, her imagery… (but) the film exploits that name-recognition in a very savvy way by playing into both the Barbie lovers and Barbie haters,” he said. “The film is also able to deftly walk a tightrope that appeals to both naïve and wide-eyed eight-year-old dreamers, who approach the film on one level, and adult audiences, who are able to interpret the film on an entirely different level, full of irony, humor, sexual innuendos, and allegory.”

“Barbie” has become everything from a relationship litmus test to a celebration of womanhood for people who may have come for the hot-pink outfits and stayed for the film’s existential questions.

“Driving that discourse is the film’s embrace of what generations of women have both loved and hated about the brand and what it’s often represented in the past,” said BoxOffice Pro chief analyst Shawn Robbins, adding that the movie “has tapped into cultural conversations about gender roles and female empowerment that aren’t bound by international borders.”

Barbie box office collection – Makes history with $1 billion at the box office

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