Warner Bros.' Barbie bests Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman to claim the title of the best opening weekend for a film directed by a female.

Barbie's $162 million opening weekend is now the largest debut ever for a film directed or co-directed by a woman. The previous titleholder was 2019's Captain Marvel ($153 million), which was co-directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. Wonder Woman held the record for best opening for a film solely directed by a woman with the Patty Jenkins-helmed superhero feature earning $103 million back in 2017. Barbie has also broken several other box office records, including the biggest opening weekend of 2023, beating The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($146 million).

And thanks to the phenomenon of "Barbenheimer" - hundreds of thousands of moviegoers opted to watch double features of "Barbie" and Christopher Nolan's historical drama "Oppenheimer", which opened to a remarkable $80.5 million - it was not only the largest overall box office weekend since the pandemic, but it was also the fourth-biggest collective weekend of all time.

"Barbie" cost $145 million, not including a marketing campaign that propelled the movie into the mainstream long before it landed in theaters. Gerwig, the Oscar-nominated director of "Lady Bird" and "Little Women", co-wrote the film’s screenplay with Noah Baumbach.

Source: Press Release