- The Washington Times - Sunday, July 23, 2023

“Barbie,” the live action motion picture about the iconic doll, notched the biggest opening weekend of the year by raking in $155 million domestic box offices.

The film surpassed the $146 million brought in by “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” in its debut weekend in April, according to audience analyst company Comscore.

“Barbie” also had the biggest opening day of the year Friday, earning $48.2 million and $22.3 million in pre-sales, according to Variety.

The more than $70 million generated Friday by “Barbie” easily passed the $52 million earned by “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” on its opening day last month.

Greta Gerwig also became the female director with the highest grossing opening weekend, moving past director Patty Jenkins’ 2017 “Wonder Woman” and Anna Boden, who co-directed 2019’s “Captain Marvel.”

The pink-drenched film’s success was curiously helped by premiering on the same date of director Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” — an R-rated film about the development of the atomic bomb.

The two movies became linked with the internet meme “Barbenheimer” and shared a great opening day. “Oppenheimer” brought in $33 million on Friday.

“I can’t really think of any parallels ever where both movies became bigger because of each other,” Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, told CNN.

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.

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