‘Barbie’ tops box office with record-setting $155 million debut

Warner Bros.’ Barbie scored the biggest domestic opening of the year with an estimated $155 million, surpassing The Super Mario Bros. Movie and every Marvel movie this year. The Margo Robbie–Ryan Gossling-led film also broke the first-weekend record for a film directed by a woman, Greta Gerwig. Barbie added an estimated $182 million overseas for a global haul of $337 million.

Moviegoers also flocked to theaters to catch Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer, which beat expectations with an estimated $80.5 million opening for a second-place debut. The biopic, starring Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr. and Matt Damon, picked up an estimated $93.7 million at the international box office for a worldwide total of $174 million.

The one-two punch, known as “Barbenheimer,” collectively fueled the biggest box office weekend of the pandemic era.

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning took third-place, earning an estimated $19.5 million in its second week of release. The seventh film in the Mission Impossible franchise has collected $118.7 million in North America and $370 million globally to date.

The thriller Sound of Freedom grabbed fourth-place, delivering an estimated $18.8 million. Its four-week domestic total now stands at $124 million.

Rounding out the top five was Disney’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny with an estimated $6.7 million at the North American box office. The movie has grossed $159 million domestically and $335 million worldwide after four weeks.

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