Barbie is the highest-grossing film of 2023 in the UK and Ireland so far
As new figures show, “Barbie” has become the highest-grossing film of the year in Great Britain and Ireland.
The blockbuster comedy, in which Margot Robbie plays the world-famous Mattel fashion doll, has grossed £67.5 million in its first three weeks of release – enough to push previous chart-topper The Super Mario Bros. Movie into second place with £54.6 million.
Thanks to its overwhelming box office success, Barbie could surpass last year’s highest-grossing film, Top Gun: Maverick, which grossed £83.7 million.
The film is already outperforming the sequel to Top Gun, which grossed £50.1 million three weeks after its release – around three-quarters of Barbie’s current total.
This summer’s other box office hit, “Oppenheimer,” continues to attract many viewers.
The film has now grossed £39.2 million in the UK and Ireland, climbing to third place in this year’s box office charts, beating the likes of Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 (£36.7 million) and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (£30.4 million).
Oppenheimer’s subject – the life of the eponymous American physicist who played a key role in the development of the atomic bomb – has nothing to do with the comic book adventures of Marvel superheroes, and certainly not with the fantasy world of live-action fashion dolls.
But recent box office numbers – which run through August 6 – suggest that both “Oppenheimer” and “Barbeheimer” have found large audiences, and some fans are watching the two films back to back as a “Barbenheimer” double bill.
Their appeal may be due in part to the fact that the films are standalone releases rather than spin-offs or parts of long-running franchises.
Box office figures are published by the British Film Institute and Comscore, with figures for the UK and Ireland being combined for reporting purposes.
Between the second and third weekends of Barbie’s release, box office revenue dropped 40%, but the film has already shown enough momentum at the box office to warrant a further increase in total revenue in the coming weeks.
And if the film can match or even surpass last year’s chart-topper Top Gun: Maverick, it could become one of the top ten highest-grossing films of all time in the UK and Ireland.