Sorry, Mario. It’s Barbie’s world now. Per Deadline, Barbie will overtake the Super Mario Bros Movie to become the year’s highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office this Wednesday with a haul of over $574.2 million.
The Super Mario Bros Movie took 138 days to reach $574.2 million, which Barbie did in just 34 days. As it stands now, Mario remains #1 at the worldwide box office with $1.3 billion, but Barbie is just behind at $1.2 billion. As the film is still going strong, Mario might just have to give up that spot as well.
Barbie has also become the highest-grossing movie in Warner Bros. history at the domestic box office, speeding past the previous record holder, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Barbie also has the chance to surpass Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part Two to become the studio’s highest-grossing movie worldwide.
Speaking of the success of Barbie, Margot Robbie actually predicted that the film would gross $1 billion when she pitched it to the studio. “I think my pitch in the green-light meeting was the studios have prospered so much when they’re brave enough to pair a big idea with a visionary director,” Robbie said. “And then I gave a series of examples like, ‘dinosaurs and [Steven] Spielberg,’ that and that, that and that – pretty much naming anything that’s been incredible and made a ton of money for the studios over the years. And I was like, ‘And now you’ve got Barbie and Greta Gerwig.’ And I think I told them that it’d make a billion dollars, which maybe I was overselling, but we had a movie to make, okay?!“
Greta Gerwig’s Barbie features a star-studded cast which includes Margot Robbie as the title character and Ryan Gosling as Ken. When Barbie suddenly begins to worry about her own mortality, she goes on a journey of self-discovery to the real world, accompanied by a love-lorn Ken. Considering how well the film is doing, you can almost certainly expect a sequel to be announced once the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes have concluded, but it was revealed that neither Robbie, Gosling, or Gerwig have deals in place to return for a sequel. Barbie will be released on Digital on September 5th.