Barbie Hits $1 Billion At The Worldwide Box Office In Just 17 Days
Barbie is everything: a doctor, a lawyer, a president, an astronaut, and now a box office sensation. In its third weekend at the box office, Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" has become one of the fastest movies ever to hit $1 billion at the worldwide box office, and only the second movie to hit that milestone so far this year, alongside "The Super Mario Bros. Movie."
Per The Hollywood Reporter, "Barbie" will cross the billion-dollar threshold today while easily holding the weekend box office top spot against fresh competition from "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" and "Meg 2: The Trench." More precisely, its running total is $1.03 billion, made up of $459.4 million at the domestic box office and $572.1 million from overseas markets.
Domestically, "Barbie" added another $53 million this weekend — a drop of just 43 percent from its second weekend, which in turn dropped just 42.6 percent from the opening weekend. It won't be long before Margot Robbie's anthropomorphized manifestation of the world's best-selling doll whizzes past the half-billion mark at the domestic box office on her neon yellow rollerblades.
Hitting $1 billion after just 17 days in theaters puts Barbie among the top 10 fastest movies to reach 10 figures at the box office, matching the furious pace of "Furious 7," which is currently in seventh place on the list. (It should be noted that inflation is always a factor in setting box office records, which is why all the movies on the list are from the last 15 years.) Based on its current trajectory, and comparing to similar releases, it now looks very likely that "Barbie" will finish its theatrical run north of $1.5 billion worldwide. How far north? Well, let's take a look at the cinematic horizon.
Barbie is on a straight road with few speed bumps
The bumper crop of "Barbie" will give Warner Bros. Discovery a nice Q3 revenue boost (the company's recent Q2 earnings release was even dressed up in "Barbie" pink to celebrate), but it comes at a time when the studio isn't ploughing its fields or sowing any seeds for future harvests. Hollywood productions are almost entirely shut down due to the ongoing double strike by actors and screenwriters. The Writers Guild of America has been on strike for over three months now, which had already shut down around 80 percent of productions before SAG-AFTRA began its own industrial action on July 14. AMPTP, the trade association that represents Hollywood studios, has so far made little progress towards resolving the strikes.
The actors strike also covers any promotional work, which means that upcoming movies won't benefit from the marketing boost that "Barbie" got from Ryan Gosling deadpanning about "Kenergy," or Margot Robbie guiding a tour of the Barbie Dreamhouse. In an era where star power seemed to be waning, "Barbie" has proven the value of having beloved, charismatic actors to lead press tours. Now, even completed movies are being moved from their planned release dates by studios concerned about the impact of empty red carpets on the box office. Luca Guadagnino's "Challengers," which stars Zendaya in a story about a steamy love triangle of professional tennis athletes, was recently delayed from September 2023 to April 2024.
If more major films follow suit, then "Barbie" could become this year's "Top Gun: Maverick": the movie that theaters keep playing for months on end to fill the gaps in a sparse schedule. With only "Gran Turismo" and "Blue Beetle" offering any significant competition in August, and an even quieter schedule in September and October, we could be living in Barbieland for quite a while.