Barbie's Blockbuster Opening Is Even More Impressive The Longer You Look At It
We just witnessed, quite literally, one of the biggest box office weekends in history. The match-up between Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" and Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" lived up to the hype, with both films delivering the goods. But it was Gerwig's adaptation of Mattel's iconic doll, which stars Margot Robbie in the lead role, that came out (rather handily) on top, taking in $162 million domestically to grab the number one spot. Even that $162 million figure is impressive as it represents a $7 million increase over the $155 million Sunday estimates. But taking a closer look at the numbers reveals an even more impressive, historic success.
Primarily, it should not be glossed over that "Barbie" managed to so handily top "Oppenheimer," a movie by one of cinema's most reliable hitmakers in Nolan. This is the guy who turned the "Batman" franchise around and into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, not to mention one of the only filmmakers out there who can take an original concept like "Inception" or "Interstellar" and turn it into a legitimate blockbuster. The fact that Gerwig was able to take a children's toy, adapt it with a PG-13 rating and majorly meta concept, and double the opening of "Oppenheimer" is stunning.
And this is not to raise one and lower the other, as Nolan's biopic about the man who invented the A-bomb ended up with a best-case scenario opening as well. But "Barbie" opening against such stiff competition only offers more perspective to the impressive performance. It's why we're looking at a situation where we have a movie that opened above $100 million with another movie opening also above $50 million as well. That's never happened before. So far as these things go, this is a historic moment.
Barbie enters superhero territory
Setting aside the much-discussed showdown, let's look at what "Barbie" actually pulled off and why it's so damn impressive. For one, it's the biggest debut ever for a movie directed by a woman. For a moment, it looked like "Captain Marvel" ($153.4 million), which was co-directed by Anna Boden, was going to hold onto that distinction, but now, Greta Gerwig gets to hold it on her own. Warner Bros. and Mattel risked a lot by giving this offbeat movie a $145 million budget, but with a downright massive $344 million global opening, that confidence has already been well rewarded.
More than that, "Barbie" had the biggest opening weekend ever for a non-superhero, non-sequel, non-reboot of any kind. Yes, really. That $162 million domestic debut is 20th all-time, coming in just above "The Dark Knight Rises" ($160.8 million). Almost everything above that is either a sequel or a reboot. Let us not forget that "Avatar" only opened to $77 million before going on a run for the ages on its way to becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time. The only exception true to the sequel/reboot rule is "Black Panther," which opened to a record-shattering $202 million back in 2018. But given that it's connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that had a major advantage.
There's also 2012's "The Avengers," which opened to $207.4 million in its day. Though technically not a sequel, it kind of serves as a sequel of sorts to "Iron Man," "The Incredible Hulk," "Thor," and "Captain America: The First Avenger." On the flip side, "Barbie" is standing on its own two feet. If we take superheroes out of the equation, the next closest is "The Hunger Games" ($152.5 million), which sits at number 26 on the charts. In short? It's Barbie's world right now. We're just living in it.
"Barbie" is in theaters now.