Credit: Warner Bros.With all the hype surrounding Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, it was guaranteed to be a major success. With Thursday night previews underway, its numbers are already proving that to be the case.
With a “small” budget of $145 million, it definitely has a higher chance of success than Warner Bros.’s other release earlier this year. The Flash, with its budget of $200 million, became the studio’s biggest flop, with a dismal box-office return and a disappointing ending to the pre-James Gunn DC era.
The running joke leading up to the release of Barbie has been “Barbenheimer,” as the Warner Bros. adaptation releases the same weekend as Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. The joke online was a double screening, watching one film followed immediately by the other. However, at least looking at Thursday numbers, Barbie is pulling in a bigger crowd than the Universal-produced biopic.
With Thursday previews alone, Barbie has already pulled in a staggering $22.3 million in the domestic box office, trumping Oppenheimer’s $10.5 million. Not only has the pink-filled masterpiece from Gerwig and Margot Robbie beat it’s direct weekend competitor and its studio’s own projected “saving grace,” Barbie has beaten Marvel.
The top spot for Thursday previews was previously held by Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 (2023), the final installment of James Gunn’s run at Marvel. With Barbie and Oppenheimer being two of the most-anticipated films of the year, even including Guardians and the upcoming The Marvels, if the Warner Bros. picture continues this streak, it very well could be the highest-grossing movie of the year.
However, The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) currently holds the number one top-grossing film of 2023, with a nice $574 million recouped from the box office. It quickly climbed the ranks, becoming the second highest-grossing animated film of all time, sandwiched between Frozen II (2019) and Frozen (2013).
Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) hit the second highest spot for the year, with Guardians coming in third. Across the Spider-Verse opened its domestic Thursday night previews with $17.3M, as did Guardians. With Barbie already well beyond those numbers, and expected to earn well over $100M over the course of its opening weekend, it could be the highest-grossing film of 2023.
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