The rise of #ENTERTAINMENT movie on July 2023!
Greta Gerwig has broken the domestic box office record for a female director with Barbie on track to make $155m on the opening weekend in North America. The film surpassed the $103.3m domestic opening of Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman and the $153m weekend opening of 2019’s Captain Marvel, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Cinemas around the world were busier than ever over the weekend, thanks to the simultaneous release of Barbie and Oppenheimer, with excitement for Gerwig and Christopher Nolan’s respective blockbusters going into overdrive.
While Oppenheimer’s critical ratings have blown past Barbie with a near-perfect Rotten Tomato score, the latter, which stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has surpassed the Cillian Murphy-starring biopic’s box office takings.
Impressively, Barbie is now on track to take $155m, with Nolan’s drama set to amass $80.5m in North America. Internationally, both films have delivered massive global debuts of $337m (Barbie) and $174.2m (Oppenheimer) respectively.
Meanwhile, speaking in a new interview with The Independent, Nolan described Oppenheimer as “the biggest film I’ve made”. Murphy admitted to struggling to watch the film due to seeing his face projected on the screen, but acknowledged that the film is “designed” to be “watched with an audience”.
Incredible behind-the-scenes look at Barbie’s transportation sequences
Greta Gerwig said Barbie’s transportation sequences, which show the characters’ transition between the Real World and Barbieland, were intended to “look like a diorama in the Natural History Museum”.
Without the use of CGI, Ryan Gosling said they were able to use “old silent movie film techniques”.
Pavement react to surprise reference during Ken’s ‘mansplaining’ scene in Barbie
The Barbie soundtrack is jam-packed with tracks from artists such as Lizzo, Charli XCX, Nicki Minaj, and Dua Lipa – but there is one band reference that has surprised a number of fans.
Barbie has managed to live up to the hype that its worldwide marketing campaign drummed up, winning over audiences with its bubblegum pink aesthetic and clever script.
One element of the film that viewers did not expect, however, was a reference to Pavement. The California indie rock band is best known for hit tracks such as 1991’s “Debris Slide” and 2002’s “Here”.
