\u201cBarbie\u201d has answered the billion-dollar question with a resounding \u201cyes.\u201d Barely three weeks into its run, writer-director Greta Gerwig\u2019s blockbuster has raked in an astounding $1.03 billion at the global box office, according to official Warner Bros. estimates. This makes Gerwig the first solo female director with a billion-dollar movie.
As one half of the viral \u201cBarbenheimer\u201d phenomenon, it isn\u2019t shocking \u201cBarbie\u201d has performed well. And, standing on her own two feet, the doll\u2019s incredible success is not unexpected at all.
\u201cI\u2019ve been in this game for 30 years and the Barbie and Barbenheimer phenomenon is as unprecedented as it was unpredictable,\u201d said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
According to Dergarabedian, only about 50 films in history, unadjusted for inflation, have hit the billion-dollar mark.
He added the movie\u2019s marketing campaign was the first hint \u201cBarbie\u201d would be a box office smash. \u201cThe marketing campaign for \u2018Barbie\u2019 set into motion a chain of events that led to the word \u2018Barbenheimer\u2019 being added to the popular lexicon by virtue of its shared release date with \u2018Oppenheimer,\u2019 and that\u2019s when we all knew something very special and unique was going to create a much bigger than expected outcome for the film not only for the opening weekend, but for its global run in theaters.\u201d
In an interview with Collider last month, Margot Robbie \u2014 who produced the movie in addition to playing the titular character \u2014 shared a premonition she had at a greenlight meeting with studios.
\u201cI think I told them they\u2019d make a billion dollars which, maybe I was overselling, but we had a movie to make!\u201d she said.
\u201cBarbie\u201d was distributed by Warner Bros., which is owned by CNN\u2019s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.
Its global success was driven by box office sales in some of the world\u2019s largest movie markets, including the United Kingdom, Mexico and Australia. The movie has been the No. 1 release in these markets every weekend since its release, according to tracking site Box Office Mojo.
\u201cBarbie\u201d also performed well in China, the second-largest market in the world and one that has becoming increasingly insular over the past few years. According to experts, franchise films like \u201cTransformers,\u201d \u201cFast and Furious,\u201d and Marvel\u2019s superhero movies tend to perform well with Chinese audiences. While \u201cBarbie\u201d is similar to \u201cTransformers\u201d in that it\u2019s based on an existing toy, it\u2019s \u201cnot an IP that generations of Chinese have grown up with, so you lack the intergenerational appeal that a film like \u2018Barbie\u2019 has in the United States,\u201d said Michael Berry, director of UCLA\u2019s Center for Chinese Studies.
But Berry, who researches Chinese cinema and pop culture, says Barbie is still iconic around the world, giving the movie a solid springboard for international acclaim.
\u201cChildren in hundreds of countries\u2026 have grown up with the dolls, her imagery\u2026 (but) the film exploits that name-recognition in a very savvy way by playing into both the Barbie lovers and Barbie haters,\u201d he said. \u201cThe film is also able to deftly walk a tightrope that appeals to both na\u00efve and wide-eyed eight-year-old dreamers, who approach the film on one level, and adult audiences, who are able to interpret the film on an entirely different level, full of irony, humor, sexual innuendos, and allegory.\u201d
\u201cBarbie\u201d has become everything from a relationship litmus test to a celebration of womanhood for people who may have come\u2002for the hot-pink outfits and stayed for the film\u2019s existential questions.
\u201cDriving that discourse is the film\u2019s embrace of what generations of women have both loved and hated about the brand and what it\u2019s often represented in the past,\u201d said BoxOffice Pro chief analyst Shawn Robbins, adding that the movie \u201chas tapped into cultural conversations about gender roles and female empowerment that aren\u2019t bound by international borders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n