Barbie has beaten a box office record held by Christopher Nolan’s 2008 superhero blockbuster The Dark Knight. Greta Gerwig’s comedy-drama film, adapted from the popular Mattel toy franchise, was released in cinemas last Friday (21 July). It premiered on the same day as Nolan’s latest film Oppenheimer, with the two films enjoying a joint publicity storm referred to as “Barbenheimer”. As reported by Variety, Barbie took in $26m (£20m) at the US box office on Monday (24 July). The figure constitutes the highest ever Monday gross for a film released by Warner Bros. The previous record holder was Nolan’s Batman sequel The Dark Knight, which made $24.6m (unadjusted for inflation). Barbie has already proved a huge financial success for Warner Bros, taking in $162m (£125m) in the US and a total of $337m (£261m) globally over its opening weekend. Oppenheimer, meanwhile, took less over its opening weekend – $80.5m (£62m) in the US and $174.2m (£135m) globally – but has still been hailed as a hit. The film follows the life of nuclear scientist J Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), often described as the “Father of the Atomic Bomb”.
