‘Barbie’ Breaks Half a Billion at the Global Box Office

Barbie just keeps bringing in the money as the pink-filled Barbie-Mania and high-octane Kenergy continue to take over the globe. Now after less than a week of release, the Greta Gerwig-directed adaptation has crossed the $500 million mark worldwide. The film as of Wednesday has made exactly $528.6 million with a massive $291.4 from overseas markets.

One thing’s clear, Barbie isn’t just an American phenomenon. The film’s dominating every market it’s in. Barbie has already made $40.2 million in the UK, $25.2 million in Brazil, $18.9 million in Australia, and $15.9 million in China just to name a few. This is all with historically low percentage drops from day to day. It truly is a Barbie world and it’s only going to get hotter as the film heads into the weekend. As of right now, Barbie is tracking at a $70 million plus second weekend domestically. If that holds true then this famous doll’s second weekend will be higher than other Summer blockbusters’ opening weekends like The Flash, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. That’s a crazy accomplishment when you stop and think about it.

Why Has Barbie Been So Successful?

While some of the film’s rabid success can be attributed to the hilarious Barbenheiner cultural phenomenon, at the end of the day, Barbie’s an extremely fun feel-good movie with a ton of meaningful heart. Like Super Mario Bros. earlier this year, Barbie has become a multigenerational event that the whole family needs to see. It’s one of those great films where it only feels right to share the laughs and a good cry with a crowded theater. Almost everyone has at least one memory of Barbie growing up — whether it’s playing with them yourself or watching your siblings or children have fun with them from afar. Barbie smartly uses that nostalgia as the hefty anchor to its rich satire that tackles female empowerment, masculinity, and toxicity in a very enjoyably fun way. Those themes have helped drive repeat viewings and the added bonus of dressing up in your favorite pink attire has helped to cement Barbie as the world’s next pop culture movement. We shouldn’t expect that to change in its second weekend as going to a packed movie theater is finally fun again.

Can Barbie Join the Billion Dollar Club?

After crossing the half-a-billion-dollar mark, the next logical question is can it hit the billion-dollar mark? While the box office can change at any unpredictable moment, given Barbie’s nonstop historic pace, it almost certainly can. To put it in perspective, Barbie has already passed the lifetime gross of films mentioned above like The Flash and Indiana Jones in less than a week. Its only new competition this weekend is Disney’s Haunted Mansion, but that’s likely a battle already won by Mattel and Warner Brothers. While we wait for another Barbie-filled weekend, you can view the trailer for Barbie down below.