‘Barbie’ overtakes ‘The Dark Knight’ to set new US box office record
Greta Gerwig's film is on track to become the highest-grossing movie of 2023
Barbie has overtaken 2008’s The Dark Knight to set a huge new box office record in the US, a month on from its release.
Greta Gerwig’s film, which stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is now Warner Bros.’ highest ever grossing film in the United States.
Variety report that Barbie has now made $537.5million at the domestic box office, passing The Dark Knight‘s previous record of $536million.
It comes after Barbie passed $1billion at the global box office earlier this month, and is on its way to pass The Super Mario Bros. Movie and become the highest-grossing film of 2023 in both the United States and worldwide.
Elsewhere, Francis Ford Coppola has said that he thinks that the world is on “the verge of a Golden Age of cinema” due to the success of Barbenheimer, the internet phenomenon of the two big name, standalone movies Barbie and Oppenheimer opening on the same weekend.
The huge box office success of both films has suggested that audiences are still hungry to catch blockbusters in cinemas. Barbie took $162 million (£126 million) on the opening weekend (starting 21 July) while Oppenheimer took $82.4 million (£63.8 million).
It was also revealed that Margot Robbie wasn’t the first choice to play Barbie, with the Australian actor – who is also a producer on the film – saying she and Gerwig were both originally looking at another lead in Gal Gadot.