‘Barbie’ Box Office: Greta Gerwig Becomes Highest-Grossing Female Director of All Time Domestically, Beating ‘Frozen II’

Filmmaker Greta Gerwig and Warner Bros.’ Barbie has enjoyed another history-making week.

Gerwig now ranks as the highest-grossing female director of all time at the domestic box office after skating past Frozen II, which was helmed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck.

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From Walt Disney Animation Studios, 2019’s Frozen II grossed $477.4 million in North America, not adjusted for inflation. Barbie finished Tuesday with a domestic tally of $478.1 million before climbing to $492.6 million through Thursday. On Friday, it becomes the 20th title in history to clear $500 million domestically.

That’s not all — Gerwig is also celebrating becoming the highest-grossing female director of a live-action movie at the worldwide box office as Barbie passes up Marvel Studios’ 2019 superhero pic Captain Marvel.

Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Captain Marvel grossed $1.13 billion worldwide. Barbie finished Thursday with a worldwide tally of $1.113 billion and is strutting past Captain Marvel on Friday.

Barbie has been shattering the glass ceiling since opening to a staggering $162 million at the North American box office over the July 21-23 weekend, the top domestic opening ever for a female director (solo or otherwise). Domestically, Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman debuted to $103.3 million in 2017 on its way to earning $413 million, while Captain Marvel started off with on its way to grossing $426 million.

After just 17 days in release, Barbie became the first live-action film in history that’s directed by a woman solo to join the global billion-dollar club.

Now that it has passed up Captain Marvel, the question now is whether Barbie can strut past Frozen II‘s worldwide war chest of $1.43 billion to become the top-grossing movie of all time — whether live-action or animated — from a female director. (Lee and Buck’s Frozen earned $1.28 billion globally.)

At this pace, box office observers aren’t ruling anything out when it comes to Barbie, which will easily stay atop the box office chart over the Aug. 11-13 weekend despite being in its fourth outing.

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