Barbie becomes biggest film with solo female director as it passes $1bn at box office

Barbie has become the biggest film to be directed by one woman, surpassing the $1 billion mark.

Global box office sales have ensured that the movie, which made its debut just over a fortnight ago, has broken the record for a female director previously held by Patty Jenkins who directed Wonder Woman.

Warner Bros, which produced it, said the fantasy-comedy movie has taken in $459 million (£360m) from domestic cinemas- counting the United States and Canada – and another $572.1m (£449m) overseas, for a total of $1.0315 billion (£785m). The figure was confirmed by media analytics firm Comscore.

Oscar-nominated Barbie writer and director Greta Gerwig also became the first female filmmaker to surpass the billion-dollar benchmark as a solo director.

Social media sensation
In its third weekend in cinemas, Barbie drew another $127m (£99.7m) worldwide, with its popularity fuelled by a social media craze that even Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, latched onto, posting a picture on his Twitter account at the cinema with his family.

Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, the movie sends Mattel Inc’s iconic doll on an adventure into the real world.

Barbie could yet become the highest grossing film of the year so far, with its ticket sales currently ranking it second behind The Super Mario Bros, which was released in April and has raked in a total of $1.357 billion (£1.07bn) at the box office.

In modern box office history, just 53 movies have made over $1 billion, not accounting for inflation, and Barbie is now the biggest to be directed by one woman, supplanting Wonder Woman’s $821.8m (£645m) global total.

Barbie joins exclusive $1bn club
Three movies that were co-directed by women are still ahead of Barbie, including Frozen ($1.3 billion) and Frozen 2 ($1.45 billion) both co-directed by Jennifer Lee and Captain Marvel ($1.1 billion), co-directed by Anna Boden.

However, Barbie has passed Captain Marvel domestically with $459.4m (£360.7m), versus $426.8m (£335m), thereby claiming the North American record for live-action movies directed by women.

Barbie crossed the $400m mark (£314m) in the US and $500 million internationally faster than any other movie at the studio, including the Harry Potter films.

Jeff Goldstein, the president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. Pictures, and Andrew Cripps, the president of international distribution, said in a statement: “As distribution chiefs, we’re not often rendered speechless by a film’s performance, but Barbillion has blown even our most optimistic predictions out of the water.”

The movie has taken on an internet life of its own with the “Barbenheimer” meme, a joke created by fans to mark it being released at the same time as Oppenheimer, an epic biographical thriller, which has crossed the $500m (£392m) mark globally in three weeks. The Telegraph