‘Barbie’ tops $1 billion, a new box office milestone for female directors

Greta Gerwig's Barbie has broken a historic record by surpassing $1 billion in global box office ticket sales – also rendering Gerwig as the first woman to reach this milestone as a solo director.

This record, described as "Barbillion" by Warner Bros., was previously held by Patty Jenkins, director of Wonder Woman, which took $821.8 million globally in 2017. Now Barbie, starring Margot Robbie, America Ferrera, and Ryan Gosling, is the first film directed by a solo woman to hit a billion dollars. (Other movies that have been co-directed by women have also done so: Frozen, Frozen 2, and Captain Marvel.)

Barbie is only the second 2023 film to hit the big B, with The Super Mario Bros. Movie bringing in $1.357 billion in ticket sales.

"As distribution chiefs, we’re not often rendered speechless by a film’s performance, but Barbillion has blown even our most optimistic predictions out of the water," Warner Bros. distribution executives Jeff Goldstein and Andrew Cripps said in a statement.

Goldstein added that "no-one but Greta Gerwig could have brought this cross-generational icon and her world to life in such a funny, emotional and entertaining story."

It doesn't seem like a surprise though, really, given the Barbenheimer craze, rave reviews, and the fact that Gerwig and the film literally turned the world pink. Gerwig already broke the record for the biggest opening weekend of all time for a female director.