Margot Robbie’s Barbie smashes Aussie box office records

Pink power has prevailed at the Australian box office as audiences fell in love with the blockbuster new Barbie movie.

Pink power has prevailed at the Australian box office over the weekend as audiences fell in love with the new Barbie movie.

The comedy starring and produced by Aussie Margot Robbie took a dazzling $21.5 million in its opening weekend (Thursday to Sunday, and including Wednesday night previews), making it easily the biggest film of the year to date.

Margot Robbie’s Barbie movie is a global box office sensation.

The monster haul is also the biggest opening weekend in this country for Robbie, co-star Ryan Gosling, director Greta Gerwig and for a film directed by a woman.

As audiences of all-ages around the country kicked off the weekend with sellout sessions, Barbie’s $11.1 million gross was the biggest Saturday ever recorded at the Australian box office – beating the $10.3 million Saturday in 2019 after Marvel’s record-breaking Avengers: Endgame opened.

And the following day’s $10.5 million dollar take was the country’s biggest ever Sunday at the movies, beating the December 27, 2015 public holiday when Star Wars: The Force Awakens and five other new wide releases were playing.

Margot Robbie attends the Barbie Celebration Party in Sydney last month. Picture: Hanna Lassen/Getty Images

Christopher Nolan’s biopic Oppenheimer, with Cillian Murphy starring as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, also made a serious impact with cinema-goers. Its $9.36 million opening weekend put the acclaimed original drama ahead of results achieved by recent franchise action blockbusters including Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, Fast X and John Wick 4.

Together, the unlikely pairing, dubbed the Barbenheimer phenomenon, helped deliver one of Australia’s best ever weekends at the box office with a total of $34 million.

Barbie is also breaking box office records. Warner Bros’ Barbie and Universal’s Oppenheimer have delivered their studios triumphant openings of $337 million (A$500m) and $174.2 (A$259m) million respectively, according to Deadline.

A movie theatre Box Office is pictured announcing the opening of "Oppenheimer" and "Barbie" movies, in Los Angeles. Picture: AFP

At the international box office, Barbie netted the biggest overseas opening ever for a non-franchise film and set a record for director Greta Gerwig for the best domestic debut for a movie with a female director.

Gerwig beats Anna Boden’s 2019 Captain Marvel, Patty Jenkins’ 2017 Wonder Woman, and Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Fifty Shades of Grey.

Issa Rae, Margot Robbie and director Greta Gerwig at the world premiere of Barbie at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Picture: Michael Tran / AFP

Gerwig, who has been nominated for three Oscars for previous films Little Women and Lady Bird, recently revealed how she rejected the idea of cutting a pivotal scene involving Margot Robbie.

When Barbie crosses over into the real world she encounters an older woman sitting on a bench, and Barbie tells the woman, who is played by Oscar-winning costume designer Ann Roth, that she is beautiful.

Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig attend the Barbie European Premiere at Cineworld Leicester Square in London. Picture: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

Gerwig revealed she was under pressure to delete the scene from the final cut but fought to keep it instead. “I love that scene so much,” Gerwig told Rolling Stone, who told execs, “If I cut that scene, I don’t know what this movie is about.”

Gerwig also had praise for Robbie in that key thematic moment.

“To me, this is the heart of the movie. The way Margot plays the moment is so gentle and so unforced. There’s the more outrageous elements in the movie … But to me, the part that I can’t believe that is still in the movie is this little cul-de-sac that doesn’t lead anywhere- except for, it’s the heart of the movie.”

Barbie has also recorded the biggest three-day debut of the year to date, ahead of The Super Mario Bros Movie’s $146.3 million (A$217m).

And the combined might of Barbenheimer has seen the US box office record the fourth biggest weekend of all time.

Originally published as Margot Robbie’s Barbie smashes Aussie box office records