Barbie Movie - Man-hating Propaganda or Clever Social Satire?

Greta Gerwig makes history as Barbie has biggest opening weekend for film directed by a woman

Barbie made $377m while Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer took home $174m, making ‘Barbenheimer’ biggest box office weekend of 2023 so far.

Barbie writer and director Greta Gerwig (right) and Barbie star Margot Robbie, have made records with the biggest movie opening so far this year.

Greta Gerwig makes history as Barbie has biggest opening weekend for film directed by a woman
Barbie made $377m while Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer took home $174m, making ‘Barbenheimer’ biggest box office weekend of 2023 so far
Guardian staff and agencies

Greta Gerwig has made history as Barbie scored a US$377m (£293m, A$560m) opening weekend around the world, making it the biggest debut ever for a film directed by a woman.

At the North American box office – combining the US and Canada – Barbie claimed top spot with a massive $155m in ticket sales from 4,243 locations, surpassing The Super Mario Bros Movie and every Marvel film released this year to become the biggest opening of the year.

Barbie review – a riotous, candy-coloured feminist fable

The social media-fuelled fusion of Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer as “Barbenheimer” brought moviegoers back to the theatres in record numbers to see both films as a double feature. Oppenheimer also soared past expectations, taking in $80.5m from 3,610 theatres in the US and Canada, making it Nolan’s biggest non-Batman debut and one of the best ever starts for an R-rated biographical drama.

It’s also the first time that one movie opened to more than $100m and another movie opened to more than $80m in the same weekend. When all is settled on Monday US time, it will probably turn out to be the fourth-biggest box office weekend of all time with more than $300m industrywide.

Internationally, Barbie earned $182m from 69 territories, fuelling a $337m global weekend, while Oppenheimer did $93.7m from 78 territories, even managing to surpass Barbie in India, for a $174.2m global total. In the UK, cinema chain Vue said a fifth of customers saw both films in a double bill on the weekend, which was the biggest for UK cinema ticket sales since Covid.

Barbenheimer affected ticket sales for Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part I, which fell 64% after a healthy opening weekend and strong reviews. Having lost Imax screens to Oppenheimer, the Tom Cruise vehicle added $19.5m to North American box office takings, which reached $118.8m.

Women drove the historic Barbie opening, making up 65% of the audience, according to PostTrak, and 40% of ticket buyers were under the age of 25. By comparison, Oppenheimer audiences were 62% male and 63% were over the age of 25, with a somewhat surprising 32% that were between the ages of 18 and 24.

This combination of images shows Margot Robbie in a scene from Barbie, left, and Cillian Murphy in a scene from Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer and Barbie give Vue cinemas best UK weekend since Covid

This is the comeback weekend Hollywood has been dreaming of since the pandemic. There have been big openings and successes – Spider-Man: No Way Home, Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: The Way of Water among them – but the fact that two movies are succeeding at the same time is notable.

“It was a truly historic weekend and continues the positive box office momentum of 2023,” said Michael O’Leary, president and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners. “People recognised that something special was happening and they wanted to be a part of it.”

And yet in the background looms disaster as Hollywood studios continue to squabble with striking actors and writers over a fair contract.

Barbie and Oppenheimer were the last films on the 2023 calendar to get a massive, global press tour. Both went right up to the 11th hour, squeezing in every last moment with their movie stars. Oppenheimer even pushed its London premiere forward by an hour, knowing that Emily Blunt, Matt Damon and Cillian Murphy would have to leave to symbolically join the picket lines by the time the movie began.

[Michael_Bancroft]

Did you see the movie? Let me know your take, the hit subscribe!

[randrews]

I believe the movie was made as a satire as a feminist movie. However, if you dig deep, they actually make a case against their own propaganda.

[bronxkies]

Ben lighting a Barbie on fire is such ridiculous, political theater. I’m a conservative and used to listen to him regularly but I’ve lost interest. Too reactionary.

[charlieslondon]

It was not a feminist movie. It was 100% about how girls play with their dolls and how those idealistic lives children create for themselves so not translate into the world in which they will grow up. In a time when we constantly hear “leave the kids alone” this film cleverly did just that. It showed that we, as adults should be encouraging our children to stay innocent for as long as we can because once you get into the social and emotional world of adulthood, innocence is lost. Look at how easily the sad teen-adult playing with Barbie projects her own adult problems onto the doll. We are always saying that adult themes should stay away from schools and children’s spaces. This film actually highlights why. It’s not man hating at all. If anything Ryan Gosling as Ken steals the show.

[narendrasomawat]

it was male hating. but we already has been normalised male hate in society. so it doesn't seem so. in the war between conservative and liberal, male are just becoming politics.

[BillBrasky]

It actually references a lot of male/guy movie/media from the 60s--90s that went over the youngins' heads, (I was the only one laughing in the theatre) e.g. Street Car Named Desire, Midnight Cowboy, Top Gun, Karate Kid, The Matrix, Matchbox 20 and dude Ken has his name on his belt in the Metallica font. And I know I missed a ton. Don't be shocked if Gosling gets a best supporting actor nomination

[JCTBomb]

Yeah. That’s the whole goal; the less obvious and the more confusing they can make it the better. If they came out and made it obvious what the message was it wouldn’t be as powerful. That’s why they are called subliminal messages. As long as it gets across a subliminal message it doesn’t need to make sense.

[cactusrosi]

I thought it was dumb and couldn't take it seriously no matter what direction they were going for.

[InhumanFan]

Ngl chose to go to Oppenheimer instead, i love history and it looks right up my alley. Got it booked for tommorow 😊

[Ivan.A.Churlyuski]

My 15 year old daughter said it was the most sexist movie she’s ever seen.

[gametabulas]

Its a very well made movie, 80% of men i talked to hated it because they couldn't pick up suble satire in this movie. Its really well made, its not at all feminist or mysogynist it showed hypocrisy of both sides. Even ended with a perfect note where the whole journey of barbie became useless and it all went back to where it was.

[elongatedmanforever]

Hollywood is incapable
Of making movies without
It being utter Cringe or boring
Im glad i black pilled out
Of watching any more films
From hollywood.

[henrygambles]

Legitimately I didn’t view it as Man Hating, the film is actually very sympathetic towards the Kens, they’re not vilified but misunderstood if anything ! It is told through the perspective how young girls play with dolls(saying this as someone with a younger sister who used to play with Those dolls)! I don’t consider it Man Hating at all and I hated Ghostbusters(2016), The Last Jedi, Kurtzman’s Star Trek, the MSheU and The Woman King which clearly were misandrist garbage unlike this film!

[SilviaVanThreepwood]

I went to see it with my sister, who has Down Syndrome, she's a huge Barbie fan. When it finished, first thing she said to me was: "I liked it the most when the Kens stood up for eachother and helped eachother! The Barbies were really mean to them." Even SHE saw how the Kens were treated. On that note, if the makers were so hell-bent on "diversity" they did a piss-poor job of it, where WAS the Down Syndrome Barbie, writers/casters?? Or the Asian Barbie for that matter? Shows the hypocricy of people with certain "ideologies" once again...

[makinkacp]

Many movies aren't made for men. Many aren't made for women.

[nathanaguiar]

The fact that this movie was successful proves society is too far gone.

[mikeburkhart]

Got no reason to see it...Barbie means nothing to me, I grew up with Transformers, Voltron, and Robotech. Thus, I'll stay home and watch Super Mario Bros. on DVD instead.

[bronxkies]

I haven’t seen the movie yet. Maybe I’ll check it out today. That said, why would anyone expect a movie based on a conspicuously girly toy that always promoted “girl power”, independence, and over the top femininity to appeal to men? I highly doubt that it bashes men to the extent of having to burn dolls.

[arytaco]

Wouldn’t the fact that it “isn’t made for men” enhance the former’s case?

[mysaysthings]

I'll never take someone seriously if they think THIS is "man-hating".