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.
He certainly does.
And here’s a music video that isn’t from the movie and honestly 1000x better.
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.
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?