Barbie is the only billion-dollar movie directed by a woman
The Barbie Movie Made More Than a Billion Dollars in the U.S. Box Office: How Successful Has Hollywood Been Over The Last One-Hoop?
Barbie is the first movie from a solo female director to hit the mark, joining just a few other female-directed films that have grossed over a billion dollars internationally: Both Frozen and Frozen II were directed by Jenny Lee and Chris Buck. Barbie grossed $53 million in its third weekend in the US, topping the weekend box office and putting its domestic total at $459.4 million, according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.
Smith has studied inclusion in popular culture for a long time. Her most recent report from February shows that female representation in television and film has gotten better. Her study looks at 1,600 movies in a year. In 2007, the percentage of female protagonists was only 20%. That number went up to 44% by the year 2022. Not good. But far, far better than the numbers for the world’s most successful films that enjoy the most studio support.
More than 50% of ticket buyers on Barbie’s opening weekend were women, said Matthew Belloni, host of The Town. “And then it actually rose to 71% female in the second weekend, which is unusual,” he said. Anecdotally, it seems numerous women return to the movie, bringing relatives and friends. Barbie’s appeal to men cannot be denied.
“[This] is a reflection of what Hollywood has chosen to back with its biggest budgets, its largest marketing spends, and who it has … given the opportunity to direct and write and star in these movies,” The Hollywood Reporter’s senior film editor, Rebecca Keegan, pointed out on a recent episode of the podcast The Town. “So it’s a little hard to say that that’s responding to market forces versus that is a reflection of the culture that’s driven Hollywood for decades.”
A couple of other women have shared credit for directing movies that made more than a billion dollars. Both Frozen and Frozen II are directed by a man and a woman. And Anna Boden co-directed Captain Marvel with Ryan Fleck. Wonder Woman is one of the top 60 highest grossing films not adjusted for inflation, but it did not break the billion dollar barrier.
Barbie has made $1 billion at the box office. It is the fastest Warner Bros. Pictures release to hit the milestone after only 17 days in theaters, according to Variety. The film was the second to get there, behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
We can expect more from the company. The toy maker will want more Barbie-sized successes from its catalog. According to The New Yorker, the toy company is thinking about adapting everything from Hot Wheels to Uno before Barbie came out.
The response to the film shows that it is a theatrical event of the summer and that the film is an incredibly special one.
