Barbie has officially broken the legendary threshold…but not really. After one of the most successful box office runs in modern Hollywood history, Barbie is now officially the highest grossing Warner Bros. movie of all time…in a certain point of view.
Time to bring out the old Obi-Wan Kenobi quotes to accurately tell this tale.
Barbie has broken all records, predictions, expectations, and hopes for the movie’s success as it has overtaken Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II to become the highest grossing box office movie in Warner Bros. history. Yet, even though Barbie has been an amazing success, this is a really deceptive accomplishment.
Okay, as I said in my last article about Barbie become Warner Bros. highest grossing domestic movie, let me just praise all of the production team, set designers, CGI department, visual effects, acting core (and especially Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling), and director Greta Gerwig for making cinema history by having the highest grossing movie in Warner Bros. long, storied filmography.
It’s truly amazing how Barbie, a movie about the classic Mattel doll, broke $1.342B at the worldwide box office this weekend to overtake Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II ($1.315B), the final film in the legendary saga adapting the equally legendary novel series about Harry Potter, Hogwarts, and the Wizarding World, at the all-time box office rankings for Warner Bros. And in a year that has seen Hollywood go on strike for 115+ days, no less.
This film will go down in legend not only as one of the most successful (in terms of box office success) films of all-time (it currently ranks 17th all-time), but also the film that resurrected the Barbie toy line for Mattel and unleashing the Mattel Cinematic Universe as there’s most definitely going to be a Barbie 2 and a plethora of other Mattel toys made into films.
Oh, and Margot Robbie is most likely winning the Best Actress award at the Oscars, Greta Gerwig may win best director (that category is more stacked), and Barbie is going to be nominated for Best Picture.
Nevertheless, it’s really kind of ridiculous to believe that this film really is the highest grossing Warner Bros. film of all-time based on its merits as a film as inflation is as big of a customer for Barbie as the average movie goer.
In my last article about Barbie, I made the point that the OG Robin Hood film, which was made in 1938, grossed $3.981M ($87M in 2023) at the domestic box office on ticket prices that averaged around ¢35, while the OG Snow White movie, which was made by Walt Disney and Walt Disney Animated Studios in 1937, grossed $67 ($1.42B in 2023) at the worldwide box office on $2.75-$5 ticket prices. Oh, and these films came out right during the height of the Great Depression.
(Warner Bros. Discovery-Barbie-Main Trailer)
So, if these films came out today and had the ticket prices of the modern movie theaters, there’s no chance these movies make anything under $2B at the box office and would blow Barbie out of the water.
And, that goes double for other Warner Bros. movies, such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II (released: 2011-$1.787B), Aquaman (released: 2018-$1.391B), The Dark Knight Rises (released: 2012-$1.440B), The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (released: 2012-$1.350B), The Dark Knights (released: 2008-$1.416B), etc.
Barbie could surpass a few of these films in their 2023-inflated box office hauls, but I highly doubt it will surpass The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, and definitely not Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II. These movies have almost insurmountable box office hauls, and only a legendary film of the decade (which Barbie isn’t) could dream about supplanting it.
Still, what Barbie has achieved is tremendous by any stretch of the imagination and it should be praised for the box office destroyer it is.
Images Source: Featured Image: (Warner Bros. Discovery) (Barbie | Main Trailer – YouTube)
In Text Image 1: (Warner Bros. Discovery) (Barbie | Main Trailer – YouTube)
