Barbie Already Made More at Box Office Than Fast X and The Flash

One of the most iconic toys in history is now the basis for the biggest movies in the world, and one of the biggest films of the entire year. Greta Gerwig's Barbie has defied all projections and expectations to deliver a record-breaking opening weekend. As of Sunday afternoon, Barbie is projected to earn a massive $155 million at the domestic box office in its first three days. That sounds like a lot, but it's even more impressive when you realize that it only took Barbie one weekend to make more money in North America than some other 2023 blockbusters have made in their entire theatrical runs.

Barbie's $155 million this weekend is already more than the entire domestic runs of both The Flash and Fast X, films that cost significantly more money than Gerwig's new blockbuster and were part of major existing franchises. Fast X made $145 million domestically over the course of its run, while The Flash earned just $107 million. They each made more money internationally, but not nearly enough to make them the hits that the studios were hoping.

If Barbie makes even more on Sunday than expected (which Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 did earlier this year), it has the potential to pass a couple more domestic runs from this year. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts currently sits at $155.6 million for the year, while Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is at $159 million. Of those four movies, Indiana Jones is the only one with a substantial number of showings still taking place around the country, having earned nearly $10 million this past weekend.

Barbenheimer's Big Weekend

This weekend has been an unprecedented one for the box office, seeing two movies simultaneously debut to massive numbers. When Barbie and Oppenheimer were both placed on the same day on the release calendar, it seemed like a box office fight could hurt them both. Instead, the exact opposite happened, and the two movies rode the event to opening weekends well above what they were initially projected. 

This is the first time that two movies have debuted to more than $80 million at the domestic box office on the same weekend. Barbie could ride this momentum to be the biggest movie of the entire year, while Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is outperforming every other R-rated biopic we've seen in theaters.

In Barbie, to live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you're a Ken. From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig comes Barbie, which hit theaters on July 21st. Barbie stars Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, Ariana Greenblatt, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, and Will Ferrell. The film also stars Ana Cruz Kayne, Emma Mackey, Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Scott Evans, Jamie Demetriou, Connor Swindells, Sharon Rooney, Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Dua Lipa and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren. Gerwig directed Barbie from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach, based on Barbie by Mattel.