Barbie could still become the highest-grossing film of the year so far, with its ticket sales currently placing it in second place behind The Super Mario Bros, which opened in April and has grossed a total of $1.357 billion (£1 .07 billion) in office cash.
In modern box office history, just 53 films have grossed more than $1 billion, not taking inflation into account, and Barbie is now the biggest directed by a woman, replacing the global total of $821.8 million (£645 million) of Wonder Woman.
Barbie joins the exclusive $1bn club
Three movies that were co-directed by women remain ahead of Barbie, including Frozen ($1.3 billion) and Frozen 2 ($1.45 billion), both co-directed by Jennifer Lee, and Captain Marvel ($1.1 billion), co-directed by Anna Boden.
However, Barbie surpassed Captain Marvel domestically with $459.4m (£360.7m), up from $426.8m (£335m), thus claiming the North American record for directed live-action films. by women.
Barbie crossed the $400 million (£314 million) mark in the US and $500 million internationally faster than any other film at the studio, including the Harry Potter films.
Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. Pictures’ president of domestic distribution, and Andrew Cripps, president of international distribution, said in a statement: “As heads of distribution, we’re not often at a loss for words over a film’s performance, but Barbillion has Blown even our most optimistic predictions out of the water”.
The film has taken on a life of its own online with the “Barbenheimer” meme, a joke created by fans to mark its release at the same time as Oppenheimer, an epic biographical thriller that has surpassed the $500 million mark (392 million dollars). sterling). worldwide in three weeks.
