The momentum of Hollywood’s “pink wave” reveals no indicators of slowing down, with Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” sustaining its stronghold for a 3rd consecutive weekend at North American theaters. This spectacular run has propelled the movie’s worldwide earnings past the $1 billion mark, marking a historic achievement for a feminine director working solo.
The Greta Gerwig-directed blockbuster has tapped right into a cultural zeitgeist: Not solely did it make historical past by hitting the billion-dollar field workplace milestone, but it surely additionally did so sooner than any movie – together with these directed by males – in Warner Bros.’ 100-year historical past, executives there mentioned.
The movie, which earlier scored the largest opening weekend of the yr, “has captured the imagination of moviegoers around the world and the results are incredibly impressive,” analyst Paul Dergarabedian of Comscore mentioned.
Starring Margot Robbie as iconic doll Barbie and Ryan Gosling as boyfriend Ken, the film earned a projected $53 million for the Friday-through-Sunday interval, for a home complete of $459 million and a whopping $1.03 billion worldwide.
Co-written by Gerwig and her companion Noah Baumbach, it follows Barbie as she contends together with her woman-led, pink-plastered fantasy land turning into contaminated with real-world issues, in a comic book self-aware commentary on the dolls’ decadesold cultural significance.
A supporting solid together with Will Ferrell, Kate McKinnon, and America Ferrera add much more star energy to the movie, whereas its soundtrack contains new songs by chart toppers Dua Lipa, Lizzo, and Nicki Minaj – in addition to a shock hit in “I’m Just Ken,” the facility ballad sung within the movie by Gosling.
“Barbie” is barely the sixth movie to surpass $1 billion on the field workplace for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic, in keeping with Variety.
Falling to 3rd place was Universal’s “Oppenheimer,” the darkish historic drama whose opening the identical week as “Barbie” sparked the huge “Barbenheimer” social media development.
‘Oppenheimer’
It was bumped by Warner Bros. newcomer “Meg 2: The Trench,” an motion sequel during which Jason Statham tries to outlive assaults by gargantuan prehistoric sharks.
“Meg 2” pulled in $30 million for the weekend, whereas Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” earned $28.7 million to push its world complete to $552 million.
That complete made the story in regards to the creation of the atomic bomb the all-time top-grossing World War II movie, forward of Nolan’s personal “Dunkirk” ($527 million) and Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” ($482 million), not adjusted for inflation, in keeping with Hollywood Reporter.
Fourth place for the weekend went to “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” the most recent within the franchise a couple of workforce of reptilian heroes in a half-shell. The Paramount animated comedy, that includes the voices of Jackie Chan and Post Malone, introduced in $28 million.
Disney launched “Haunted Mansion” slid two spots to fifth, with the lavishly produced kid-centric movie – starring LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, and Owen Wilson – incomes $8.9 million.
Holding its personal in sixth was the unbiased “Sound of Freedom,” from Santa Fe Films and Angel Studios, at $7 million. The low-budget motion thriller has sparked controversy, with critics saying its story about youngster intercourse trafficking performs into Qanon conspiracy theories.
All in all, it was an distinctive weekend for Hollywood, with the highest 4 movies all raking in $28 million or extra – although whether or not the business can maintain that momentum within the face of a historic writers’ and actors’ strike stays to be seen.
Not solely did the highest movies come near doubling the entire from the identical weekend final yr, they surpassed the corresponding pre-pandemic weekend in 2019, analysts mentioned.
As Ken might need mentioned – in a line reportedly ad-libbed by Gosling in “Barbie” – the weekend was “Sublime!”
Source: www.dailysabah.com