This past weekend was a historical win for going to the movies, with Barbie and Oppenheimer collectively becoming the fourth highest-selling box office opening in history (not counting inflation). Barbie led with $377 million worldwide, not only making it the biggest movie of 2023 thus far, but it also became the best debut weekend for a solo female director. Suffice to say, writer/director Greta Gerwig has a lot of celebrating to do, and she recently reacted to the movie’s massive success.
Following an opening weekend that had tons of audiences dressing in pink and seeing Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, Gerwig shared to Uproxx that she’s “overwhelmed in the best way” about the worldwide response. She also said this:
Honestly, I'm experiencing everything in real time and it is sort of mind-boggling. But it's incredible because I'm also in New York City and yesterday I started jumping around to theaters and turning up the volume at different show times. I was like, ‘I think we can add a DB. Let's just keep going.' But yeah, I mean, it's amazing. Obviously, I'm here in New York City, but I'm like, 'Oh, it's everywhere.' How fabulous and strange.
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Greta Gerwig has seen great success in Hollywood before, finding critical acclaim for her previous writing and directorial efforts in 2017’s Lady Bird and 2019’s Little Women. But, this is on a whole other level. Her Barbie movie has become a cultural phenomenon! Barbie broke Patty Jenkins’ sole female director record for 2017’s Wonder Woman, and prior to the pink-tastic movie hitting theaters, The Super Mario Bros. Movie was 2023’s biggest hit.
Mattel has been trying to make a Barbie movie since 2009, with various big names being attached to the project over the years, including Amy Schumer, Anne Hathaway and Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins. Gerwig was brought on board by Margot Robbie to write the film with partner Noah Baumbach before helming it for Warner Bros as well. Ahead of the movie’s release, critics fell in love with Barbie, and the movie had a marketing campaign like no other.
What was also incredible last weekend was the success of Christopher Nolan’s R-rated biopic, Oppenheimer, which made $174 million worldwide in its first weekend. The movie became the third-highest-grossing opening weekend for the filmmaker behind The Dark Knight Rises and The Dark Knight. The win was somewhat amped up by the popular Barbie and Oppenheimer double features inspired by the shared release dates going viral previously.
All and all, we’ll be looking back at Greta Gerwig’s Barbie success for some time given the commercial and critical success. And we imagine only more exciting and massive projects will come the writer/director’s way in the near future. Until then, you can check out Barbie and other films on the 2023 movie schedule, now playing in theaters now.
