A scene from “Barbie.”
Courtesy: Warner Bros.
It’s a “Barbie” world — or at least North America.
The collaboration among director Greta Gerwig, Mattel and Warner Bros. Discovery topped $575.4 million at the domestic box office Wednesday, making it the highest-grossing movie of the year in North America.
The movie based on the iconic doll surpassed Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which previously held the title with its $574 million haul.
“Barbie” is also inching closer to grabbing the crown for highest-grossing global release this year. It has tallied $1.3 billion worldwide, nearing the $1.35 billion “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has generated since its April release. The films are the only two to cross the $1 billion mark this year.
The success of “Barbie” and Super Mario come at a time when audiences have overwhelmingly balked at superhero flicks and franchise installments in favor of fresh content.
“Barbie’s” record-breaking box office run started in July when it debuted with $162 million in receipts, the highest of the year. It secured the biggest opening for a film directed by a woman and is now the highest-grossing film directed solely by a female director.
Notably, “Barbie” maintained the top spot at the box office for four consecutive weekends. It is expected to drive ticket sales through the rest of the summer and into the fall.
The film has seen weekend drops in its box office haul of under 43% since its opening, with the last two weekends only showing an average of a 36% decline from the prior weekends. Typically, big films will drop closer to 60% each weekend after their initial release.
There are few major films hitting theaters in the coming weeks, which should allow “Barbie” to continue collecting ticket sales with limited competition.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the distributor of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”
