(From left) America Ferrera, director Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie pose for photos during the pink carpet event for the movie "Barbie" in Seoul, South Korea, July 2, 2023. Photo: AP
Greta Gerwig should be feeling closer to fine these days.
In just three weeks in theatres, Barbie is set to sail past US$1bil (RM4.5bil) in global ticket sales, breaking a record for female directors that was previously held by Patty Jenkins, who helmed Wonder Woman.
Barbie, which Gerwig directed and co-wrote, added another US$53mil (RM241.3mil) from 4,178 North American locations this weekend and US$74mil (RM336.9mil) internationally, bringing its global total to US$1.03bil, according to studio estimates on Sunday (Aug 6).
The Margot Robbie-led and produced film has been comfortably seated in first place for three weeks and it’s hardly finished yet. It crossed US$400mil (RM1.8bil) domestic and US$500mil (RM2.2bil) internationally faster than any other movie at the studio, including the Harry Potter films.
"As distribution chiefs, we’re not often rendered speechless by a film’s performance, but Barbillion has blown even our most optimistic predictions out of the water,” said Jeff Goldstein and Andrew Cripps, who oversee domestic and international distribution for the studio, in a joint statement.
In modern box office history, just 53 movies have made over US$1bil, not accounting for inflation, and Barbie is now the biggest to be directed by one woman, supplanting Wonder Woman’s US$821.8mil global total.
Three movies that were co-directed by women are still ahead of Barbie, including Frozen (US$1.3bil) and Frozen 2 (US$1.45bil) both co-directed by Jennifer Lee and Captain Marvel (US$1.1bil), co-directed by Anna Boden.
But, Barbie has passed Captain Marvel in the US with US$459.4mil (versus US$426.8mil), thereby claiming the North American record for live-action movies directed by women.
Warner Bros. co-chairs and CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy also praised Gerwig in a statement and said the milestone, "is testament to her brilliance and to her commitment to deliver a movie that Barbie fans of every age want to see on the big screen.”
New competition came this weekend in the form of the animated, PG-rated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and the Jason Statham shark sequel, Meg 2: The Trench, both of which were neck-in-neck with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, also in its third weekend, for the second-place spot. – AP
