Barbie’s $155m opening breaks American record for a female director (2024)

Barbie has beaten Oppenheimer to be crowned as the box office debut winner in North America.

Greta Gerwig’s adaptation, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, brought in $155 million (£121 million) in the United States and Canada. The atomic blockbuster Oppenheimer also surpassed expectations with a take of $80.5 million (£62 million).

Deadline, the film industry website, said Oppenheimer was expected to bring in almost $160 million around the world on its opening weekend. Estimates suggest that Barbie will rake in another $150 million internationally.

The release of the film based on the Mattel doll coincided with the launch of the one about the creator of the atomic bomb on a day that became known as “Barbenheimer”. It was the first weekend during which one film brought in more than $100 million on opening and another had sales of more than $80 million.

Barbie, which opened in the UK on Friday, has already raced past The Super Mario Bros Movie, which was the biggest film of the year. The film, in which Barbie and her boyfriend, Ken, move from Barbie Land to the real world, is the biggest debut for a work directed by a woman. It is 24th on the all-time list of opening weekends in North America, which is topped by some distance by Avengers: Endgame at $357 million.

Phil Clapp, chief executive of the UK Cinema Association, said: “It’s clearly great news for UK cinemas to see such excitement about two very different films and what now looks likely to be the biggest weekend for UK cinema-going since the pandemic.

“The levels of interest and admissions for both films provide further concrete evidence that the public remains as willing as ever to respond in huge numbers to original stories well told, well marketed and made for the big screen.”

Vue, the cinema chain, reported its biggest weekend in four years and the second best ever. More than 2,000 sessions were sold out at its venues. The company said that more than a fifth of customers had booked tickets to see both films over the weekend. Tim Richards, the founder and chief executive of Vue, said that weekend admissions were the highest since Avengers: Endgame in 2019. He said the release of the two films proved that when the movies “are there, our customers will come to watch them on the big screen”.

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Odeon, the UK’s largest cinema chain, said that more than 300 screenings sold out for both films in the run-up to release day. The company predicted that a million cinemagoers would visit its venues in the coming week.

The films have received contrasting receptions across the world. Vietnam has banned Barbie over a map of the South China Sea.

Some Hindus in India have criticised Oppenheimer for using lines from the Bhagavad Gita, a 700-verse scripture, during a sex scene, saying it was “disrespectful” and an “attack on Hinduism”.

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