In the craziness of the “Barbenheimer” summer, the Barbie movie took the lead in box office success over its opponent Oppenheimer.
The former’s long-awaited release occurred on July 21st to audiences wearing hot pink outfits, excited to see their favorite childhood doll on the big screen. The film went through several production changes before finally landing on its final creative team. Greta Gerwig co-wrote – with her partner, Noah Baumbach – and directed the film’s current iteration.
The cast also had a rollercoaster of changes before the astounding ensemble cast was announced in the spring of 2022. Featuring an extremely diverse cast, with the likes of Simu Liu, America Ferrera, John Cena, Hari Nef, Issa Rae, and Margot Robbie & Ryan Gosling in the Barbie and Ken roles respectively.
Throughout the year leading up to the film’s release, there was a wild debate from movie fans about whether they should see the hot pink Barbie movie, or the black and somber Oppenheimer, or even both on their shared opening day. The debate even garnered enough attention to earn its own Wikipedia page chronicling the online discourse.
Despite the debate, Barbie managed to get dozens of brand deals and its marketing team was on fire, while the same could not be said for its opponent. Barbie’s marketing budget actually surpassed its film budget by a whopping $5 million.
When the fated opening weekend arrived: Barbie won the war. Oppenheimer earned only $82.4 million, almost $20 million less than their film budget. Barbie was able to easily surpass its $100 million budget by a whole $10 million on opening weekend.
In addition to the box office win, Barbie reached several other milestones. It has been the highest-grossing film of 2023 thus far, the biggest domestic opening for a non-superhero or sequel film, and Warner Brothers’ highest-grossing film ever, placing director Greta Gerwig as the highest-grossing female director of all time.
Following the great success of the world-favorite doll, Mattel has now planned for several of their toys to also become live-action films, such as Polly Pocket, Magic 8 Ball, American Girl, Hot Wheels, and Masters of the Universe.
While it may be extremely difficult to replicate the success of Barbie, Mattel certainly has big plans in store for its new film career.
