Barbie Just Had One of the Best Mondays in Box Office History

Barbie earned more than $25 million yesterday, giving the movie one of the best Mondays in box office history and allowing it to pass Black Adam's lifetime domestic box office haul in just 5 days. That isn't just picking on Black Adam, though; it's relevant because after a terrible few years, Barbie's $188 million domestic box office makes it the second-biggest success Warner Bros. has had since the start of the pandemic. It's surpassed only by The Batman, which made $369,345,583 at the domestic box office after an opening weekend of $134 million -- around $30 million less than Barbie made in its opening frame.

Yesterday's massive $26 million on Monday broke the previous Warner Bros. record (which was $24.6 million for The Dark Knight), and also elevated Barbie into the studio's top 50 domestic earners of all time, passing not just Black Adam but Ocean's Eleven, The LEGO Batman Movie, and The Polar Express in the process.

The studio has struggled with a string of box office disappointments, including The Flash, which opened at just $55 million domestically in spite of a reported $300 million budget. Besides The Batman, the only pandemic-era Warner Bros. movie to make more than $162 million domestically -- and we're talking all-time, not in its opening weekend -- was Black Adam, which took home $167 million (and $393 million globally). 

It's a virtual certainty that Barbie will pass Black Adam's global total by next weekend (its worldwide gross currently sits at $382 million), and distinctly possible the movie will break $200 million and start passing movies like Superman Returns and Batman Begins in North America as early as today. Other recent WB hits that Barbie is likely to pass this week include Justice League ($229 million), A Star is Born ($215 million), and It: Chapter Two ($212 million).

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.