The Movie 'Barbie' That Sparked a Pink Storm Surpasses $1 Billion in Global Revenue

The Hollywood movie Barbie surpassed a total global box office revenue of $1 billion (approximately 1.3 trillion KRW) just three weeks after its release.

On the 6th (local time), according to CNN and Bloomberg News, Warner Bros. announced that Barbie earned $53 million in the North American market and $74 million in other global markets during its third week of release. Since its release at the end of last month, the total worldwide revenue has exceeded $1 billion. Of this, the revenue in the United States alone reached $459.4 million.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

This year, Barbie is the second movie to surpass $1 billion in revenue, following the April release of Super Mario Bros. It currently ranks second in total revenue, behind Super Mario Bros. ($1.35 billion). It is understood that only about six films have earned over $1 billion since the pandemic.

With this, Greta Gerwig, the director of Barbie, became the first female solo director to join the $1 billion club. Previously, the only female director to have recorded over $1 billion in revenue was Anna Boden, who co-directed the 2019 release Captain Marvel ($1.13 billion).

Barbie, a film adaptation of Mattel’s iconic doll series, stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. Margot Robbie, who plays Barbie, expressed confidence in an interview last month, saying, "I think we can earn over $1 billion." Last week, Barbie was reported to have ranked number one at the box office in 35 markets worldwide.

CNN reported, "The global success of Barbie is being driven by the world’s largest film markets such as the UK, Mexico, and Australia," adding, "It is also performing well in China, the world’s second-largest market, which has become increasingly isolated in recent years." Michael Berry, director of the China Research Center at UCLA, evaluated that "children from hundreds of countries have grown up with Barbie dolls and images," and that the film captivates not only 8-year-old children but also adult audiences who can interpret it on different levels such as irony, humor, sexual satire, and allegory.

In particular, Barbie was released simultaneously with Christopher Nolan’s biographical film about the American atomic bomb project, Oppenheimer, creating the so-called "Barbenheimer" meme effect. Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst at Comscore and a box office expert, said, "I have been in the industry for over 30 years, but the Barbie and Barbenheimer craze is unprecedented," adding, "Almost everyone worldwide is talking about Barbie. A film cannot reach $1 billion without becoming a kind of phenomenon."

Christopher Nolan’s new film Oppenheimer has earned $228.6 million in the U.S. market and $552.9 million worldwide so far.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.