Barbie’s Greta Gerwig breaks opening weekend record for female directors

Barbie also earned the title of the third biggest July debut ever, surpassing Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, and trailing only the live-action The Lion King and Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

Director Greta Gerwig poses for the media prior to a news conference for the film Barbie in Seoul, South Korea (Lee Jin-man/AP)

Barbie did not just break the opening weekend record for 2023, it also shattered the first weekend record for a film directed by a woman.

With $162 million (€145.5m) in ticket sales from North American cinemas, according to studio totals on Monday, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie catapulted past both Captain Marvel, which was co-directed by Anna Boden and opened to $153.4 million (€138m) in 2019, and Wonder Woman, Patty Jenkins’ 2017 film that debuted to $103.3 million (€93m).