‘Barbie’ wins at the box office ahead of ‘Oppenheimer’ in historic ‘Barbieheimer’ moviegoing weekend

Audiences are happy to be living in a “Barbie” world.

The movie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, dominated the weekend box office, earning $155 million, beating expectations for a $90 to $110 million debut, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

According to the outlet, “Barbie” is also doing well overseas, pulling in $182 million from 70 markets, giving the movie a $337 million dollar worldwide gross.

With a $155 million opening weekend, “Barbie” is officially the biggest debut of the year, surpassing “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and every Marvel movie released this year thus far.

MATTEL’S BARBIE EARNS OVER A BILLION EVERY YEAR

“Barbie” set another record as well, marking the biggest domestic opening for a movie directed by a woman, with Oscar-winning writer and director Greta Gerwig behind the lens. That title had previously been held by Anna Boden, alongside Ryan Fleck, for 2019’s “Captain Marvel,” and earlier by “Wonder Woman” director Patty Jenkins.

“Oppenheimer,” directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Cillian Murphy, earning $80.5 million for a second place finish.

Variety reported that box off analysts predicted the movie would only earn around $50 million, due to the serious subject matter and three-hour runtime.

Both movies benefited from the cultural phenomenon known as “Barbenheimer,” and many movie goers opted to see both movies in their opening weekend.

David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research spoke with Variety, saying “This is an unequivocally great weekend for moviegoing. ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ are complementing each other at the box office, not taking audience from each other.”

Rounding out the top five slots are Angel Studios’ “Sound of Freedom,” the independently produced film about child trafficking starring Jim Caviezel, earning $20 million, just ahead of Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” taking fourth $19.5 million in its second week of release, according to Box Office Mojo.

In fifth place is “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” taking in $6.7 million.