Originally published July 23, 2023. Updated July 24, 2023.
It looks like everyone was seeing pink this weekend. Barbie just strutted to one of the biggest opening weekends ever, with a reported wildly impressive $155 million.
That puts the Warner Bros. Discovery and Mattell production as the biggest opening of 2023 so far, topping The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘s $146,361,865 opening weekend.
Reports put the Greta Gerwig-directed film as the biggest opening weekend ever for a movie that isn’t a superhero film, sequel or remake. Barbie is also eyeing one of the best openings of the post-pandemic era, the fourth only behind some of Marvel’s most prominent entries.
The accolades don’t stop there, as this puts Barbie as the biggest opening weekend for a female director ever and the first-weekend box office weekend for stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.
Many predicted a stellar debut for the film, but not many people called this impressive of an opening. The combined release of Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, dubbed Barbenheimer, propelled both films to unseen heights. Nolan’s three-hour historical film opened at $80.5 million domestically over the weekend, more than doubling projections.
SEE ALSO: Read our ★ ★ ★ ★ Barbie review here
Let’s see if the film will have as wonderful of legs as its doll counterpart. With an A CinemaScore and glowingly positive scores on Rotten Tomatoes, we could be looking at a bonafide mega-hit.
After being expelled from the utopian Barbie Land for being a less-than-perfect doll, Barbie and Ken go on a journey of self-discovery to the real world.
Directed by Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird, Little Women), the Barbie movie sees Robbie and Gosling’s iconic toy couple joined by a bumper cast that includes Will Ferrell (Step Brothers), Simu Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Kate McKinnon (Bombshell), America Ferrera (Superstore), Ariana Greenblatt (Love and Monsters), Emma Mackey (Sex Education), Alexandra Shipp (tick, tick… BOOM!), Issa Rae (The Lovebirds), Michael Cera (Arrested Development), Hari Nef (And Just Like That…), Kingsley Ben-Adir (One Night in Miami), Rhea Perlman (Cheers), Ncuti Gatwa (Sex Education), Emerald Fennell (The Crown), Sharon Rooney (The Electrical Life of Louis Wain), Scott Evans (Grace and Frankie), Ana Cruz Kayne (Little Women), Connor Swindells (Sex Education), Ritu Arya (The Umbrella Academy), Jamie Demetriou (Fleabag) and Helen Mirren (Shazam! Fury of the Gods).
