Barbie Passes Mario To Become Highest Grossing Film Of The Year At The Domestic Box Office
While it has been expected to happen for some time now, it's finally official: director Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" has overtaken "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" to become the biggest movie of 2023 at the domestic box office. It's Barbie's world and we're just living in it. What's most impressive is that the movie still isn't done breaking records and passing milestones, with more dominoes likely to fall in the coming days/weeks. The biggest movie of the year is only going to get bigger.
According to The Numbers, "Barbie" has now earned $575.4 million domestically since it hit theaters in July, putting it just past the impressive $574.2 million total put up by "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" earlier this year. In terms of the bigger picture, Margot Robbie's latest is now the 14th biggest domestic earner ever, sitting behind "Incredibles 2" ($608.5 million). That number is not totally out of the question but climbing any higher on the chart gets less and less likely, as "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" ($620.1 million) would be next up.
The biggest question that remains is whether or not "Barbie" can go the distance and become the highest-grossing movie of 2023 at the worldwide box office. Right now, "Mario" still holds that spot, with $1.358 billion to its name. Gerwig's adaptation of Mattel's legendary doll, meanwhile, has earned $713.3 million internationally for a $1.288 billion running total thus far. It seems very plausible — if not all but assured — that Mario and Luigi will have to surrender the crown to Barbie and Ken.
Barbie isn't done yet
There are a couple of other major milestones that "Barbie" might well pass before its theatrical run is over and done. As of right now, it stands at number 20 on the all-time worldwide chart, having recently passed Disney's animated sensation "Frozen" ($1.284 billion). Granted, this is all unadjusted for inflation, but that's still wildly impressive. If it can get to $1.316 billion, it will pass "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" to become the highest-grossing movie ever released by Warner Bros. It is already the studio's biggest domestic earner of all time, having recently passed "The Dark Knight."
Warner Bros. recently announced that "Barbie" is coming to IMAX for one week beginning on September 22, with some additional footage added in during the credits. Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" has been dominating IMAX screens for weeks now, much to the detriment of other films, particularly "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning." That one-week event figures to goose this film's total even more as it gets ready to hit VOD, signaling the end of its theatrical dominance will soon come.
Even against a $145 million budget, which might have at one point seemed like a lot for this movie, WB is going to make a ton of money, as are Gerwig, Ryan Gosling, and Robbie. Once the strikes are over, it is all but assured that we are going to get official word about a sequel. At which time, the trio mentioned above will all get another massive payday. Meanwhile, Mattel will surely feel emboldened to move forward with plans for a full-on cinematic universe based on its toys. If even some of those can be half as successful as this movie, Mattel is going to also make a lot of money.
"Barbie" is in theaters now and is set to arrive on VOD on September 5, 2023.