Barbie brought pink and lots of green to the box office, and scored the best opening of 2023.
The live-action comedy based on the iconic Mattel toys earned a stunning Friday-Sunday total of $155 million to open at No. 1, according to Comscore.
Universal’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which arrived in April, previously held the title for the year’s best debut with $146 million over its first weekend.
Thanks to its candy colors and a cast led by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, Barbie shattered that Super Mario Bros. record along with expectations this weekend.
The Warner Bros. release drew an overwhelmingly female audience, who propelled the movie to Friday ticket sales of $70.8 million. On Saturday, it earned another $48.1 million, and it brought in an estimated $36.1 million on Sunday.
The film performed even better abroad, with $182.0 million in international ticket sales for a combined global weekend of $337 million!
Barbie scored the best opening of the year in several foreign markets, including Australia, Brazil and the UK, Comscore reported.
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The movie from filmmaker Greta Gerwig danced its way into the record books, with the best opening ever for a female director.
That distinction was previously held by Captain Marvel, which was co-directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, and opened to $153 million in 2019.
Barbie also marked the biggest international opening to date for Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and Greta Gerwig.
Gerwig (Little Women, Lady Bird) co-wrote the Barbie screenplay with her partner, Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story). Barbie producers included David Heyman, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie Brenner.
The film had a reported production budget of $145 million.
As fans who grew up with Barbies know, there are many iterations of the doll.
The movie expertly brought those toys to life, with Issa Rae playing president Barbie and Alexandra Shipp portrayed author Barbie. SNL alum Kate McKinnon played weird Barbie and trended on Twitter throughout the weekend for her energetic performance. America Ferrera trended as well, for her role as normal human Gloria.
The star-studded cast additionally included Michael Cera, Ariana Greenblatt, Rhea Perlman, Will Ferrell, Ana Cruz Kayne, Emma Mackey, Hari Nef, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Scott Evans, Jamie Demetriou, Connor Swindells, Sharon Rooney, Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya, Dua Lipa and Helen Mirren.
Moviegoers loved what they saw on screen, and gave Barbie an excellent “A” CinemaScore. Critics liked the film too, handing it a 90 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Also drawing big crowds this weekend, was the Christopher Nolan war epic Oppenheimer.
The Universal Pictures release opened in second place with an excellent $80.5 million from 3,610 locations across the U.S. and Canada. The film marked one of the best openings of Nolan’s career.
Faith-based movie Sound of Freedom was third with $20.1 million. After three weeks, it has earned a total of $124.7 million.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One earned another $19.5 million for a fourth place finish. That brought its domestic total to $118.7 million.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny rounded out the top five with $6.7 million. To date, the film has earned $159 million.
