« Barbie » didn’t just break the opening weekend record for 2023; It also shattered the first weekend record for a film directed by a woman.
“Barbie” didn’t just break the opening weekend record for 2023; It also shattered the first weekend record for a film directed by a woman.
Globally, it far surpassed “Wonder Woman’s” debut with over $337 million versus $228.3 million, though “Captain Marvel’s” global launch was higher at $455 million.
“Barbie’s” debut, $7 million higher than estimated on Sunday, is also significant because its audience was 65% women — not a surprise in and of itself, but as far as box office history is concerned, movies that open over $100 million often have a majority male audience (including both “Captain Marvel” and “Wonder Woman”). This, many have noted, is perhaps less a rule and more of a lack of big films that have been made and promoted with a blockbuster female audience in minds.
A close, but imperfect comparison is “Fifty Shades of Grey,” which was directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, and made $85 million in its first three days. The R-rated adaptation opened on Presidents Day weekend in 2017 for a five-day haul of $93 million.
“Barbie” also earned the title of the third biggest July debut ever, surpassing Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises” — not adjusted for inflation — and trailing only the live-action “The Lion King” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
