Barbie Beats Harry Potter to Become Warner Bros. Picture’s Highest-Grossing Film Ever

Barbie is officially Warner Bros. Pictures’ highest-grossing film of all time. The Barbie movie, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie, has grossed $1.36 billion at the worldwide box office, surpassing the $1.34 earned by Harry Potter and the Deathyl Hallows: Part 2 in 2011 to become Warner Bros. Pictures’ highest-grossing film ever at the worldwide box office. In North America alone, Barbie has earned $600 million, surpassing Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight ($536 million) to become Warner Bros. Pictures’ highest-grossing domestic film release. Overall, Barbie is currently the 14th-biggest domestic film release and the 15th-biggest global film release in box office history. Barbie‘s total will surely grow as it heads into IMAX theaters with new footage in September.

Barbie has also surpassed The Super Mario Bros. Movie to become the biggest movie of 2023 worldwide. In August, it passed The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘s $574 million to become the biggest movie of the year in North America. The film got off to a strong start by grossing $162 million in its opening weekend, the best box office debut of 2023 so far. It then spent four weeks in the number-one spot on the box office charts.

Barbie Reviews

Barbie has seen mostly positive reviews, earning a “certified fresh” score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Its critics’ consensus on the site reads, “Barbie is a visually dazzling comedy whose meta humor is smartly complemented by subversive storytelling.”

ComicBook.com’s Nicole Drum awarded Barbie 4.5 out of 5 stars. In her review, Drum writes, “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. 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.”

Barbie cast

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. 

Barbie is playing in theaters and in IMAX with a new post-credits scene beginning September 22nd. Barbie will seemingly release digitally on September 12th, though whether that date is official remains a bit murky.