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This Barbie just broke a major record.
After months of extensive press, Barbiecore trends and “Barbenheimer” mania, Greta Gerwig's Barbie finally hit theaters on Friday, July 21, and it totally lived up to the hype. The comedy just broke a major record, becoming the highest-grossing opening weekend for a female-directed movie. According to Variety, the pink-filled flick earned a whopping $155 million in its opening weekend.
That impressive figure allowed Barbie to slip right by the previous record-holder, Captain Marvel ($153 million), which was co-directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. As far as movies directed solely by women, Wonder Woman formerly held the title, after earning $103 million in its opening weekend.
The achievements don't stop there. With Barbie's sky-high numbers, Gerwig also just earned herself the biggest opening weekend for any movie of 2023, surpassing The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($146 million).
Leading up to the release of Barbie, fans had made a meme out of the fact that the colorful fantasy film was being released on the same weekend as Christopher Nolan's historical drama Oppenheimer. The release event was quickly deemed “Barbenheimer,” and fans secured tickets for double features, donning “Barbenheimer” t-shirts and other specially-made merch.
With this collective hype, Barbie and Oppenheimer managed to score the fourth-biggest film overall movie weekend of all time (and the biggest box office weekend since the COVID-19 pandemic).
So far, The Super Mario Bros. Movie still holds the spot as the highest-grossing movie of 2023, with a little over $574 million, according to Box Office Mojo. Only time will tell if Barbie is able to beat that number.
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