Barbie: Greta Gerwig Becomes Highest-Grossing Woman Director at Domestic Box Office

The Barbie movie hit theatres at the end of July, and it has already beaten multiple box office records. After only 17 days in theaters, Barbie reached $1 billion at the box office, which makes it the first film directed solely by a woman to do so. This week, director Greta Gerwig hit another milestone when Barbie became the highest-grossing movie helmed by a woman at the domestic box office. The film has earned $1,076,809,000 worldwide and $502,609,000 domestically, which means it has officially surpassed Frozen II.

While Frozen II also surpassed $1 billion at the worldwide box office, it was not solely directed by a woman. The movie was helmed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck, who also directed the first Frozen. The animated sequel made $1,450,026,933 worldwide and $477,373,578 domestically, which means Barbie still has some work to do before topping the Disney film’s total. As for the other successful films co-directed by women, Barbie still has to beat the worldwide numbers of Captain Marvel ($1,128,274,794) and Frozen ($1,280,802,282) in addition to Frozen II. 

When it comes to other films that were solely directed by women, the runner-up to Barbie is Wonder Woman, which was helmed by Patty Jenkins in 2017. The DC movie earned $821,847,012 worldwide and $412,563,408 domestically. 

Margot Robbie Predicted Barbie Would Earn $1 Billion:

“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,” Barbie star Margot Robbie previously told Collider. “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?!”

What Is Barbie About?

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.