Barbie Is Now The Highest-Grossing Film in Warner Bros. History

Barbie has now grossed more than $1.34 billion, making it the highest-grossing movie in Warner Bros. studio history. With a worldwide gross of $1,340,301,000, the film is also less than $20 million from passing The Super Mario Bros. Movie to become the top-grossing movie of the year at the worldwide box office (it already holds the domestic title). Unless something like Aquaman or The Marvels wildly overperforms relative to expectations, it's likely that Barbie will end up the top-grossing film of 2023 overall. At this point, only Barbie and Mario have crossed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office.

The year's #3 movie is Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, with a little over $845 million. That may be the target for Aquaman and The Marvels. While the first installment in each of their respective franchises crossed $1 billion, there just hasn't been as much hype for the sequels.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II, which Barbie passed en route to the studio record, was Warner Bros.' highest-grossing film of all time by a fairly wide margin. It had earned $1.34 billion, while the #2 spot had gone to Aquaman, a movie that earned $1,143,758,700 during its theatrical run. 

Barbie hit theaters on July 21, and has been a juggernaut since, winning the box office for four weeks in a row and coming in a strong and surprisingly close second to Blue Beetle in its fifth week, then doing the same in its sixth week, nearly knocking Gran Turismo out of the top spot in its opening weekend. The movie has taken home $594,801,000 from the domestic box office, around 46% of its gross, while $745,500,000 has come from international markets. that puts it at almost exactly the same proportion of domestic to international ticket sales that propelled The Super Mario Bros. Movie to such huge success.

Here's the official synopsis for the film:

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.

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.