Credit: Warner Bros.Barbie is breaking all kinds of box office records, and now the pink-colored phenom has reached a huge milestone at the box office just two weeks after being in theaters. This has placed the Mattell adaptation as the most successful Warner Bros. film in the last ten years, leading to the doll defeating Batman.
Related: ‘Barbie’ Sequel Part of Hollywood Plans, Per Mattel
Warner Bros. has long produced DC films, especially Batman, and those films have been the biggest earners for the company for decades. Well, that was until Barbie came roaring into town. It might be the story, the promotions, or internet memes—but this movie cannot be stopped.
The Margot Robbie-led feature already accomplished one of the biggest feats in Warner Bros. history by receiving a record-breaking Monday performance on July 24, as the movie pulled in $26 million. The previous record holder was none other than the most important superhero movie in cinema history: The Dark Knight (2008). The Dark Knight held the record for the best Monday in Warner Bros. history since 2008 with $24.6 million.
Barbie was already made its mark by taking down a record held by the most important Batman and Warner Bros. film. The Dark Knight is arguably the film that started the trend of the Academy Awards looking at the superhero genre more seriously when it comes to Oscars.
On top of breaking a record held by The Dark Knight, the pink-colored masterpiece has now taken down the most recent Caped Crusader.
‘Barbie’ Surpasses ‘The Batman’
Via the Twitter page of One Take News, Barbie has now reached the $800 million mark in just two weeks of being in theaters, effectively surpassing The Batman (2022). The Robert Pattinson-led feature secured a $771 million worldwide box office haul, which is certainly nothing to scoff at. It was the biggest earner for Warner Bros. in recent memory but has since been replaced.
Barbie has plenty of time to become the biggest film of 2023. It has so far been able to take down Batman, which is usually the big earner for Warner Bros. That’s not to say that Matt Reeves can find his footing and retake the records when The Batman 2 comes out, but for now, Warner Bros. has a big winner.
The entire “Barbenheimer” craze has overtaken social media, making both Barbie and Oppenheimer become two of the biggest films of 2023. Funny enough, this also places Christopher Nolan right in the middle of the battle, as he directed The Dark Knight trilogy. Nolan also directed Oppenheimer, which is already stated to be his “magnum opus.”
Nolan had a falling out with Warner Bros., as he generally used to produce all his films under the studio’s banner. The studio would have been sitting on a proverbial goldmine if it had also produced Oppenheimer alongside Barbie.
Both The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises (2012) made over $1 billion at the worldwide box office. While movies generally have significant drop-offs in attendance as the weeks pass, that might not be the case for Barbie. It currently sits at $800 million in just two weeks, with plenty of time to remain in theaters—Barbie might become the biggest Warner Bros. film ever.
Related: Matt Reeves Wants ‘The Batman 2’ to “Push It Farther”
Barbie would have to take down Harry Potter and the Death Hallows: Part 2 (2011), which sits at $1.34 billion, but at the rate the film is going, that might not be so far out of reach.
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