One of the prime records Barbie is breaking this weekend is the best domestic start for a movie helmed by a female director, with $155M.
Globally, at an estimated $337M, Barbie is the second-best start for a movie from a female after Captain Marvel, which did $456.7M. Big numbers: the entire global haul for Gerwig’s awards-blockbuster crossover 2019 title, Little Women, was $218.8M.
Other big starts for movies helmed by a woman filmmaker include Patty Jenkin’s Wonder Woman in 2017, which had a $103.2M stateside start.
Other notable domestic openings by female filmmakers include Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Fifty Shades of Grey, which pulled in a 3-day of $85.1M, 4-day over Presidents Day/Valentine’s Day weekend of $93M.
Barbie is the highest opening stateside YTD, besting the $146.3M posted by Illumination/Universal’s Super Mario Bros Movie.
This weekend, with Oppenheimer overperforming with $80.5M, looks to fuel the fourth-best weekend ever with an estimated $304M after the Avengers: Endgame frame (April 26-28, 2019; $402M), Avengers: Infinity War‘s weekend (April 27-29, 2018; $314.8M), and the weekend when Star Wars: Force Awakens debuted (all pics over Dec. 18-20, 2015 grossing $313.2M).
Gerwig was nominated for three Oscars, including Best Adapated Screenplay for Little Women, and two for Lady Bird (Directing and Original Screenplay).
Warner Bros selected this weekend to launch Barbie, not to go head-to-head with Christopher Nolan, who used to make movies with them, but rather to space the Mattel movie away from other family films on the summer sked. The third weekend in July has always been a special one for Nolan, as it’s where he’s launched Dark Knight back in 2008 to $158M. Nolan also launched Dunkirk, Dark Knight Rises, and Inception.