Barbie Now Officially Highest-Grossing Movie of the Year in North America

Barbie is officially North America’s highest-grossing movie of the year. Greta Gerwig’s pink powerhouse has wrestled the throne away from The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Here in North America, Barbie has notched $575 million dollars at the domestic box office. That’s a staggering number that is only bolstered by the gaudy $1.3 billion its managed to rake in globally. In the coming days, the Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling adventure will also catch The Super Mario Bros. Movie at the worldwide box office as well. (Nintendo’s romp sits at $1.35 billion at the time of writing.) 

The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Barbie are the two biggest movies of the year and their box office impact has been staggering. However, the Warner Bros. picture has the chance to climb even higher on the all-time box office ladder. Barbie already bested The Dark Knight Rises as the highest-earning WB movie ever. Who knows how high the film could climb in the coming weeks. (Barbie, notably, should hit Max sometime in early September if varying reports are to be believed…) However, for now, the party with Barbie marches on as it leaves another colorful project in the dust.

Barbie’s Box Office Success Predicted By Margot Robbie

Margot Robbie believed this could happen from literally the word go. She told Collider that she mentioned the $1 billion potential of Barbie in every pitch setting she walked into. The team of Robbie and director Greta Gerwig should have signaled at least some degree of box office success to decision-makers. But, people did end up passing on it. Now, that decision looks a bit silly.

“I think my pitch in the green-light meeting was the studios have prospered so much when they’re brave enough to pair a big idea with a visionary director,” the Barbie star explained to the outlet. “And then I gave a series of examples like, “dinosaurs and [Steven] Spielberg,” that and that, that and that – pretty much naming anything that’s been incredible and made a ton of money for the studios over the years. And I was like, “And now you’ve got Barbie and Greta Gerwig.” And I think I told them that it’d make a billion dollars, which maybe I was overselling, but we had a movie to make, okay?!”

Is Barbie Good?

While Barbie is a full-fledged phenomenon at this point, some of the people who haven’t made the trip to the theater might still be wondering what all of the fuss is about. An astounding number of people ave seen the film. But, ComicBook.com‘s Nicole Drum says that even the skeptical viewers can benefit from the story that Greta Gerwig is trying to tell here. Theater-goers of all stripes have resonated with the film in an era where people believed that people just didn’t love big event movies anymore.

“Barbie is quite possibly Gerwig’s best film to date. It is insightful, hilarious, and packed with thoughtful commentary as well as an incredible amount of Easter eggs and one-liners that will reward audiences of every age and opinion on Barbie, not just on the first watch, but on multiple rewatches,” Drum said. “Barbie pulls off the near-impossible task of taking what could have been merely a capitalist IP-driven cash grab and turned it into a celebration of and commentary on culture that gives the audience permission and encouragement to challenge not only everything they think Barbie represents, but what the world asks of us mere humans as well so that we never go back into the box again.”

What Is Barbie About, Really?

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 . 

Do you think Barbie could end up being the highest grossing movie ever? Let us know in the comments down below!