‘Barbie’ Dominates Box Office For Yet Another Week—As ‘Meg 2’ Secures Second Spot

Topline

Barbie continued to dominate the box office for a third consecutive weekend, all but ensuring the film breaks the $1 billion mark, despite two new highly-anticipated films—Meg 2: The Trench and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem—entering the competition.

Australian actress Margot Robbie poses on the pink carpet upon arrival for the European premiere of … [+] “Barbie” in central London on July 12, 2023. “Barbie” continued to dominate the box office for a third consecutive weekend, all but ensuring the film breaks the $1 billion mark. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

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Key Facts

Barbie brought in $53 million in U.S. ticket sales from Friday to Sunday in its third weekend, BoxOfficeMojo reported Sunday; the film has generated a total of $459 million in North America and officially topped $1 billion globally Sunday afternoon.

Second place was captured by deep-sea science fiction film Meg 2: The Trench, which brought in $30 million in North America, a large dropoff from the 2018 original’s $45 million open.

Oppenheimer brought in another $28.7 million in its third weekend, BoxOfficeMojo reported, bringing domestic ticket sales to $228 million and worldwide sales to almost $553 million.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem—the seventh Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film in the series—debuted with a $28 million U.S. weekend and brought in $43 million since premiering Wednesday.

Big Number

$130 million. That’s how much the sequel to Meg cost Warner Bros. to make, Variety reported.

Surprising Fact

Barbie was just the second film this year to cross the $1 billion mark, alongside The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which brought in $1.34 billion worldwide.

Key Background

Barbie has been dominating the box office since its debut, and was one of the most highly-anticipated movies in recent years as a result of its approximately $100 million marketing campaign that let fans do everything from stay in a real-life Barbie Dreamhouse to eat Barbie-themed pasta. It also benefited from a friendly competition with Oppenheimer, which debuted in the same weekend, prompting some bold moviegoers to see the doll-themed comedy and atomic bomb-themed drama back-to-back. The film had the biggest opening weekend of the year, earning $155 million in the U.S over its first weekend in theaters, which surpassed expectations for the Mattel doll’s bright neon big screen debut. Barbie is now the second-biggest release of the year in terms of U.S. sales, trailing Super Mario Bros. It has an audience rating of 84% and a critic rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. Meg 2: The Trench had an audience rating of 74% and a critic rating of 29% on Rotten Tomatoes.