'Barbie' setting records straight for highest grossing movie of the year

Since its July 21's debut, Barbie has shattered countless records, and the summer blockbuster is on the verge of shattering yet another.

With The Super Mario Bros. Movie trailing by an estimated $48 million, writer-director Greta Gerwig's Barbie is certain to be the highest grossing domestic film of 2023.

Barbie earned $155 million domestically in its first weekend and this week joined the $1 billion club in global box office sales, a feat only accomplished by around 50 films in history, according to Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. While "Pink Fever" has dropped in the last week, Barbie is expected to collect $33.7 million this weekend to keep its hold on the box office.

The comedy based on the legendary doll is reported to have grossed $525 million in the United States and approximately $1.2 billion globally. Barbie earned $10 million on Friday alone, for a total of more than $11.3 million every day from August 5 to 11. 

Barbie surpassed the $500 million domestic mark in the middle of its third week, but The Super Mario Bros. Movie took more than five weeks.

The mash-up of Barbie with Oppenheimer," called "Barbenheimer," has become a pop cultural phenomenon, with the potential to revitalize the struggling movie theater sector. Barbenheimer was the fourth highest-earning industry weekend in North America of all time, grossing $302 million. Unlike "Barbenheimer," most top-grossing films frequently feature complex action scenes and spectacular effects.

“I’ve been in this game for 30 years and the ‘Barbie’ and ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon is as unprecedented as it was unpredictable,” said Dergarabedian.

He went on to say that the movie's marketing strategy was the first indication that "Barbie" would be a box office triumph.

“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,” said Dergarabedian.

Margot Robbie, who produced the film as well as played the eponymous heroine, revealed a premonition she had at a green light meeting with studios in an interview with Collider last month.

“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.