In just a short ten days, Barbie has glided up the box office charts to now sit as the third highest-grossing film of 2023. The phenomenon of the year, Barbie has been consistently breaking records since it premiered and it could be on its way to the number one spot if its trajectory is any indication.
She has taken down fan-favorite assassin John Wick, and now, Barbie is coming after The Guardians and Mario too! Greta Gerwig’s masterpiece broke records in its opening weekend, becoming the biggest opening weekend for a film released this year and also becoming the biggest debut for a film directed by a female director. The film, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in lead roles, raked in $356 million in its first few days in theatres and the hype surrounding the film has yet to abate.
Since its release in theatres on July 21, Barbie has earned $351.4 million at the domestic box office so far, with a global total of $774.5 million. This has landed the film in third place according to Box Office Mojo, just under James Gunn’s final Marvel outing with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which earned $844.8 million globally, and, in top position, The Super Mario Bros. Movie which is the only film so far to have breached the one billion mark this year, at $1.35 billion. In the case of the latter, it was in theatres for roughly two months in order to reach this mark, so for Barbie to be hot on its tail after only 10 days means that Mario is at risk of losing his crown.
Barbie has already overtaken some massive franchise films including Fast X ($704 million), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ($682 million), and Disney’s live-action adaption of The Little Mermaid ($561 million). Oppenheimer, despite its rave critical reviews, has not had the same level of commercial success (which was to be expected) and currently holds eleventh place on the charts, pulling in a still-respectable $400 million in its first 10 days. It sits above the Disney/Pixar animation Elemental and below John Wick: Chapter 4.
Many believe that Barbie is well on track to break through the $1 billion barrier, with the ticket sales far from abating. There are still some territories that have yet to release the film, such as Japan, where fans are having to wait until Aug. 11 before it opens in theatres. With so much time still to go, Barbie is still heading onward and upwards, proving that it really is a Barbie world after all.