Ticket sales for Warner Bros movie Barbie top $1.3b

NEW YORK — Box-office ticket sales of the movie Barbie topped US$1 billion (S$1.3 billion) in the United States and worldwide since its debut more than two weeks ago, Warner Bros. Pictures, a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery, announced on Sunday (Aug 6).

In a statement, Warner Bros. said the movie took in US$459 million from domestic theatres and another US$572.1 million overseas over the weekend, for a total of US$1.0315 billion. The figure was confirmed by media analytics firm Comscore.

"As distribution chiefs, we're not often rendered speechless by a film's performance, but Barbillion has blown even our most optimistic predictions out of the water," said Jeff Goldstein, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. Pictures, and Andrew Cripps, president of international distribution.

Directed by Oscar-nominated writer and director Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, the movie sends Mattel Inc's iconic doll on an adventure into the real world.

Barbie ticket sales ranked second this year to The Super Mario Bros, which was released in April and raked in a total of US$1.357 billion at the box office.

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