Barbie Tops The Dark Knight To Become WB's Best Monday Box Office Performer Ever

It's Barbie's world and we're just living in it. Warner Bros. released director Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" in theaters over the weekend and, despite some very serious, much-hyped direct competition from Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer," the film managed to make history with a record-breaking $162 million domestic box office debut. The record-breaking, however, wasn't over — this Monday the film broke a record that has been held by "The Dark Knight" for 15 years.

"Barbie" earned $26.1 million domestically on Monday (per The Numbers), the best performance ever for a Warner Bros. release. The previous record holder for a Monday at the box office in the studio's storied history was, indeed, Nolan's "The Dark Knight," which took in $24.6 million on its first Monday back in 2008, as noted by Variety. It is not lost on me, or likely anyone, that Nolan is involved once again, in a sense, as "Oppenheimer" is in direct competition with "Barbie." All involved are doing just fine, however, as Nolan's latest added $12.6 million on Monday and is on track to be the highest-grossing R-rated movie of the year.

In any event, this all bodes incredibly well for Warner Bros. and Mattel, as Gerwig's film is showing absolutely no signs of slowing down. As of this writing, it has already collected $382.3 million worldwide, with excellent reviews and an A CinemaScore suggesting that word of mouth will be very strong for weeks to come. The question now becomes: Just how high can Margot Robbie's "Barbie" fly?

If the film continues to leg out the way let's legging out right now, it could very well join the coveted $1 billion club at the global box office. It would become just the second movie to do so in 2023 behind "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" ($1.34 billion) and only the sixth movie in the aftermath of the pandemic to cross that milestone, joining "Spider-Man: No Way Home" ($1.9 billion), "Jurassic World Dominion" ($1 billion), "Top Gun: Maverick" ($1.49 billion), and "Avatar: The Way of Water" ($2.32 billion). Even taking the movie's costly $145 million production budget and equally costly — not to mention effective — marketing campaign into account, Warner Bros. has every reason to celebrate right now.

Movie theaters are also, assuredly, very happy with this Barbenheimer phenomenon. It's been a mixed summer moviegoing season thus far, with the likes of "The Flash" bombing terribly, while other franchise films such as "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" and "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" disappointed against expectations. We needed a hit, and the industry delivered not one but two on the same weekend. In the end, "Barbie" is going to be the bigger winner of the two, but we don't have to lower one to raise the other. Right now, everyone is winning.

Ryan Gosling ("La La Land"), America Ferrera ("Superstore"), Kate McKinnon ("Yesterday"), Michael Cera ("Juno"), Ariana Greenblatt ("65"), Issa Rae ("Insecure"), Rhea Perlman ("Matilda"), and Will Ferrell ("Talladega Nights") star alongside Margot Robbie in the film. Greta Gerwig co-wrote the screenplay alongside Noah Baumbach ("Marriage Story").

"Barbie" is in theaters now.