Barbie has officially become the year’s biggest box office hit, after the doll’s big-screen earnings overtook the Super Mario Bros Movie’s total.
The Barbie movie, which sees Margot Robbie’s titular toy swap her pink fantasy home for the real world, has now made $1.38bn (£1.1bn) globally.
That has taken it past the $1.36bn taken by the Super Mario Bros Movie.
Barbie has also helped the US summer box office reach the $4bn (£3.2bn) mark for the first time since the pandemic.
Analysts did not expect cinemas to reach that milestone, but the success of Barbenheimer - Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which were released on the same day in July - propelled takings past last year’s total of $3.4bn (£2.7bn).
Industry experts also predicted that the Super Mario Bros Movie would be the biggest film of 2023. But Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, has proved them wrong on that front too.
The biggest films of 2023 so far
1. Barbie - $1.38bn
2. The Super Mario Bros Movie - $1.36bn
3. Oppenheimer - $853m
4. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 - $846m
5. Fast X - $705m
It’s not crazy the margin is so small, but it’s reflective of disappointing brand loyalty versus progressive curiosity.
“Somehow, a movie about personal development and cultural introspection has earned more money in the United States than a movie about jumping on turtles. We aren’t sure what’s happening”.
I’d love it if the Super Mario Bros Movie was actually about jumping on turtles. But it’s really just about brand recognition and easter eggs. It felt like everything was just there to be there and be seen. Not because it served the story.
Except Bowser and his song. That’s oscar worthy.
I’m sorry I’m leaving my first ever third reply to I think any comment on the internet, but now I’m going to watch this movie because I just watched “peaches”
I won’t spoil the plot for you, but let’s just say I really couldn’t even if I tried.
No further convincing needed. My friends told me Jack Black was in it, but they neglected to mention a feature song? Yeah, I’ll watch 90 other minutes of innanity in order to get some Jack Black. Guys. GUYS
Bullshit.
The Super Mario Bros Super Show theme needed to be heard by the world.
Jack Black sings? Welp, I’ll watch that part of the movie a little sooner than I was planning to.
Oh yes my friend, I have now already watched every single pages version available on YouTube and I’m trolling the Vimeo and alt sector for other videos hahaha.
Absolutely amazing!
It was. And yet I still liked it a lot
Instead of a decade from now, I’m currently looking for that song hahha
I think the only reason Super Mario bros earned that much is because … kids. People in general have grown tired of reboots, remakes, cinematic universes, you know, just the blatant milking of IP.
Then again, Barbie fits in that category. So I dunno.
Mario also benefited from being the only theatrical release from that franchise in 30 years. It was a hugely popular franchise that had been untapped, as far as movies go.
More like gaming brand vs. doll brand.
The doll brand won, which I’m not at all surprised by.
But the gaming brand movie was nowhere as deep as the doll brand movie. No one talked about the themes and writing of Super Mario Bros. the way they are talking about Barbie.
Sure. But you’re not going to know that unless you’ve watched the movie or read reviews.
Given how long both movies have been in theaters, it is likely that reviews are driving don’t demand.
Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if Barbie as a character is less popular with American kids than Mario in 2023. Hasn’t Barbie been struggling?
It’s not about the kids. Kids don’t generate the most money in the box office. It’s about adults. And adults of movie going ages all know Barbie. They’re even dressing up for the movie.
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Both of them are just ad tie-ins for other products. Barbie is hardly “cultural introspection”…
tell me you didn’t watch the movie without telling me you didn’t watch the movie
I suspect it’s tell me either you didn’t watch it or watched it as a male and has above chance probability of being a tech or finance bro (not to dog pile, but I’d bet checking post history here would back that up).
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EDIT: As problematically harsh as I’m being here, the essential point I’m driving at is that superficially dismissing something as “hardly … introspection” when it addresses huge, deep historical prejudices, in however incomplete a way, is itself likely to be, without more depth and context to back the position up, a part of the same deep historical prejudices. If you want to go against the grain of the mainstream critique, I’m all ears, but you gotta do better, and your willingness to casually dismiss smells very strongly of simply and disappointingly coming from a place where the actual “introspection” just doesn’t apply or hold value.
IMO, in the case of the above dismissal, that’s likely enough and problematic enough to warrant some harsh rebuke, and to even delve toward ad hominem comments in order to clarify the biases that may very well be involved.
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Sure it’s not some culture shifting master piece of art and has huge corporate commercial interests behind it. But cultural introspection from the starting point of corporate commercialism is exactly what the film does, where the relevance of starting from a corporate/commercial perspective is that it’s where much of our world starts and is usually anathema to introspection.
For my part, the film earned my respect by actually including and addressing death. It’s fairly radical I’d say to do so in mainstream western media and the film did it evenly and maturely enough, albeit quickly.
Edit: beyond that, from what I’ve gathered, it’s rather impactful for a number of a people, and that can’t really be taken away whatever your critical perspective. Oppenheimer, by contrast, I don’t think had anything impactful to say people didn’t already know (bomb=big bad, maker of bomb = big guilty).
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I’ve watched the video. It’s a great critique of the corporate feminism in the movie. But it fails to back up your claim that Barbie has no cultural introspection.
The movie certainly does a garbage job of addressing the body image issues perpetuated by the brand. And it gives the company way too much cutesy-funness in an attempt to tame down the corporate hate it would receive. But not every feminist movie can cover every feminist topic. If every movie had to be a perfect representation of every feminist issue, we would have 0 feminist movies.
IMO, the biggest theme of the movie is how the patriarchy negatively impacts both men and women. That is feminist, and is strongly culturally introspective. We have very few movies that discuss toxic masculinity and its impact on our culture, Barbie is a good start.
The movie certainly does a garbage job of addressing the body image issues perpetuated by the brand.
I’m sure it could have done better … but the “Look it’s the Supreme Court” joke in the “real world”, when Barbie saw a Miss Universe billboard, hit pretty hard and got straight to the point I’d say.
Then you weren’t paying attention. The movie has plenty of cultural introspection, particularly how the patriarchy impacts both men and women. Yes it was definitely a giant toy ad, but it wasn’t just that.
Evidence?
…it’s a Barbie movie
Like…one of the dominating toy brands of the 90s…the fact it has “personal development and cultural introspection” is something most people aren’t going to know except word or mouth or seeing it themselves.
Both movies were tie-ins. But yes, the Barbie movie had more substance to it on closer inspection.
“something most people aren’t going to know except word or mouth or seeimg it themselves” - or by watching thirty seconds of the trailer.
Correct, both movies are tie-ins(which nobody has argued against), but not “just” tie-ins, which is the incorrect assertion addressed.
And then you agree that the Barbie movie does have more substance.
Long way to haul your agreement on every discussed point.
I am just realizing that the original OP had an extra line that I’m not actually arguing, so i’ll just say fair enough.
Evidence for what, that Barbie is a brand of products? https://shop.mattel.com/collections/barbie
Or that it is very shallow? I like this take: https://youtu.be/RToUZJ0l7Pk
No, not evidence for questions that nobody asked you, evidence for your assertion about the movies Barbie(2023)and Super Mario Bros.(2023):
“Both of them are just ad tie-ins for other products. Barbie is hardly “cultural introspection”.
Do you have evidence that both of these movies are only ad tie-ins for their toy products and that Barbie does not imply or introduce cultural introspection?
I think this movie did well because like me, many people are also sick and tired of being so sick and tired of the world all the time, and so, a movie with a sincere message for jaded adults about accepting their own mortality and refinding their humanity really resonated. Because it is a message of hope, instead of despair.
In a way, it’s the anti-“Babylon”.
Maybe I’ll explain more one day when I have time, after the strike’s done.
I think the movie did well because IT WAS PLASTERED EVERYFUCKINGWHERE along with Oppenhimer. Literally couldn’t find a corner of the internet not talking about one or the other.
My problem with the movie was the chosen villain. Ken is borderline psychotic, but it wasn’t his fault. He’s just confused and angsty.
“It’s all that damn testosterone. Let women run everything.”
Instead of targeting where all this pain actually comes from - capitalism. Corporate greed. Squeezing the working class to their bones and tossing out the leftovers.
Fix that. Buy more time for the only “based” part of the movie - When Barbie sits on the park bench and gets to just breathe and experience the world. Time to do absolutely nothing but be.
Or. . . Ya know . . . Something something men bad??
That’s the whole point, tho. It’s meant to simply be a social commentary, not to provide a solution or whatsoever.
The antagonist is pretty much as confused and angsty as anyone could be. What sets him apart is that he’s given a chance to do some real damage.
In the end, the best they could do is the slightly improved version of status quo.
Fair. I interpreted it as 2 fantasy worlds battling each other. Neither was “reality”, so any outcome shouldn’t be taken prescriptively.
And I agree - social commentary. I’m pleased just to see the discussion getting going _
But unlike in Babylon, our protagonist didn’t go back the absurd status quo, but instead choose to leave and become human in another world, right?
Just as you have chosen to leave reddit and start anew at Lemmy.
That is true, but I stand corrected.
The slightly improved that I mentioned is meant in the grand scheme of things, whic is the audiences’ perspective. Yes, Barbie and Ken found their true selves, but other than that, not much.
With the same tone, one can say: yes, Lemmy is better than Reddit and we like it here; but outside of our world, nothing changes as most people probably don’t care about Reddit anyway.
“It’s all that damn testosterone. Let women run everything.”
Did we watch the same movie? One of my main takeaways, and what I thought was so refreshing compared to other more #Girlboss feminist-coded movies like the Ghostbusters reboot, was that simply “letting women run everything” isn’t the answer. Indeed, it’s that setup in the beginning of the movie that creates that bitter resentment in Ken and causes a lot of the ensuing problems. One of the emotional climaxes of the movie is Barbie realizing that she has been mistreating him and that his pain is valid, even if how he’s chosen to handle that pain was poor. The fundamental message I’d gotten was that a true feminism is not just girlbosses running everything, but rather is one that is inclusive of men and seeks to liberate them as well from toxic gender roles and expectations that harm them as well as women.
No, it’s not really a critique of capitalism, but it’s also not remotely trying to be one, and beyond that, the issues it’s talking about aren’t really fundamentally linked to economics. You can have rampant sexism and toxic gender roles in any and all economic systems.
The movie doesn’t advocate for a matriarchy, it shows how terribly it impacted Ken and led to his “revolution”. It didn’t push “men bad”, it pushed “patriarchy bad, matriarchy bad”. It showed how the patriarchy leads to toxic masculinity and how that negatively impacts both men and women. The film is a flavor of corporate feminism so there’s no chance it was going to criticize capitalism (it would be cooler if it did), but it does a great job of pointing out how the patriarchy has hurt everyone.
Funnily enough many people viewed Ken as the good guy even after the point was made that he is supposed to be a sympathetic villain.
This, exactly this is what the movie should’ve been.
Also I don’t understand the modern way of many movies being made now where the movie isn’t something where you can immerse yourself in the movie without any political agenda being pushed by any side.
I want a movie to be something to Enjoy rather than criticize our world for its problems. Sure some movies can have this message such as documentaries or crime stories and such but today it’s come to the point where more and more genre of movies are becoming like this.
Have you ever watched movies? They all have stuff to say. Otherwise why make em?
Ishtar is a movie. What did it have to say?
Unfamiliar, but the description[0] suggests they have some themes around war in the middle East. I hear that can occasionally get political. Really you should just stick to nice simple books without any subtext at all, like Moby Dick. Just a good read about a man who hates a fish.
[0] “Two untalented nightclub performers get caught in the crossfire when they are booked in the war-torn Middle East. Thanks to rebel Shirra, the duo find themselves in the middle of a revolution.”
From the few minutes of it I could sit through, it struck me as a badly made buddy road trip movie. Actually try to sit through it then tell me what it’s about.
So you’re saying that movies shouldn’t push a message and should instead be purely about enjoyment. Then you bring up an example of a movie that you found to be really shitty and unenjoyable as an example of a movie without a message (but didn’t watch enough of it to be able to say whether it pushes any message). Are there any movies that don’t push a message that you did enjoy?
I feel you. It’s why I can’t watch Disney movies anymore. I’m fully aware how busted our world is. If salting the wound makes more people aware, I’d chalk that up as a win.
But if these “freshly woke” folks are rallying around a banner of “Less men CEOs” instead of “CEOs paid what we’re paid”, imo that’s another loss.
I felt similarly about “Rich Men North of Richmond”. Agree - Pay is shit, life is shit, yup yup. But then the man blames poor people receiving welfare? . . . Bruh . . . So close . . .
I think the controversy between it’s release alongside Oppenheimer and the people raging about it helped.
Not at all to say it’s a bad movie. But a good movie with some controversy is going to draw more people than a good movie with no controversy.
What controversy has there been? Genuine question, I’ve only heard really positive things about the film.
Political provocateurs on the right claimed the film was an attack on masculinity as well as an attempt to make a children’s toy into ‘woke’ leftist extremism. It isn’t, but they make their living selling rage to their viewers so they made a big stink anyway.
Hadn’t even been aware of it. I really am out of the loop on this stuff. What social medias was this sentiment most prominent on?
Folks like ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh. And the echo chambers they operate in
I don’t follow them.
Ahh ok, luckily I must have missed that!
I think it was the map incident no?
Map incident?
Oh I thought someone got angry because there was a map in the movie that showed China doing China things or whatever. It was very in passing so I don’t remember the details but I thought it was stupid.
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I forgot there was a map in the movie, which shows how insignificant it is. Did a quick search on DuckDuckGo here … and yea anyone taking that map seriously is just kicking up a fuss.
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Barbie is still playing and selling well at my local movie theater
Yeah I saw it a few days ago and was surprised by how packed my theater was so late into the release cycle.
Good, Barbie was a movie where things actually happened and characters actually did things.
