‘Barbie’ crosses the billion-dollar mark at the box office, leading best July since pre-pandemic

This “Barbie” has earned a billion dollars at the box office.

In its third week, the Margot Robbie-starring film earned $53 million, maintaining its No. 1 spot, and with an international gross of $74 million, put it at $1.03 billion total worldwide.

It crossed $400 million domestic and $500 million internationally faster than any other movie at Warner Bros., including the Harry Potter films.

“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,” said Jeff Goldstein and Andrew Cripps, who oversee domestic and international distribution for the studio, in a joint statement.

‘BARBIE’ HOLDS STRONG AT THE BOX OFFICE FOR SECOND WEEK

“Barbie,” directed by Greta Gerwig, is also now the highest-grossing film directed by a woman, surpassing 2017’s “Wonder Woman,” directed by Patty Jenkins.

Warner Bros. co-chairs and CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy also praised Gerwig in a statement and said the milestone “is testament to her brilliance and to her commitment to deliver a movie that Barbie fans of every age want to see on the big screen.”

“Barbie” opened opposite the R-rated drama “Oppenheimer,” which had held the second place position for the past two weeks, but slid into third place behind the newly released “Meg 2.” The film has overall earned $228.6 million and is so far the highest grossing R-rated film of the year.

Rounding out the top five were Paramount’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” with $28 million, and Disney’s “Haunted Mansion,” with $9 million.

Overall, July saw its highest revenues at the box office since pre-pandemic times, according to Variety. In North America, theaters pulled in $1.36 billion, 11% better than the 2017-2019 three-year average.

Worldwide, last month was also the first time since before the pandemic that the North America, China, and international (excluding China) markets proved to be ahead of their pre-pandemic averages, according to the outlet.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.