‘Barbie’ Swings Past ‘Spider-Verse’ for Biggest Box Office Opening of 2023

Barbie is painting the country pink and pulling in the green.

Greta Gerwig's latest, starring Margot Robbie as the iconic doll, scored this year's biggest opening day with $70.5 million, per BoxOfficeMojo. That accounts for the $48.2 million it made across 4,243 theaters on Friday, combined with the $22.2 million it earned in previews on Thursday (also a record for the year), per Variety.

All in all, that's nearly $19 million more than the previous 2023 record holder, Sony Animation's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which made $51.8 million in its opening weekend in June.

And the pink wave could be coming for Mario's crown next. Released in April, The Super Mario Bros. Movie landed $146.3 million in three days, good for the biggest three-day debut of the year. The animated film remains the box office leader for the year, scoring $573 million domestically and $1.34 billion worldwide.

Barbie will also likely cruise past Wonder Woman's $103 million opening weekend, dethroning the Patty Jenkins feature to become the biggest weekend opener ever for a solo female director.

Not only is all well in Barbieland, but its Barbenheimer twin, Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, is also fairing well at the feted same-day release dual. The sprawling, 3-hour biopic about the creation of the atomic bomb has earned a respectable $33 million on its opening day, per BoxOfficeMojo. Projected to earn $77 million by Sunday, the movie seems poised to become one of the most successful opening weekends for an R-rated film. Familiar franchise films like Deadpool ($132.4 million), its sequel ($125.5 million) and It ($123.4 million) currently top that list.

After what has so far been a relatively lackluster summer at the box office, Barbenheimer appears to be surpassing its lofty expectations and could be on pace for a whopping $300 million weekend, according to Deadline.