#Box Office: ‘Barbie’ Crosses $1B Globally, ‘Meg 2’ and ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Add to Summer Burst

Turtles and a humongous shark helped fuel another great weekend at the box office as they joined the Barbenheimer parade and opened ahead of expectations.

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie grossed another $53 million domestically as it it hits $459.4 million in North America and crosses $1 billion globally on Sunday in a huge win for Warner Bros. and Mattel.

It’s the first live-action film in history that’s directed by a woman solo to join the billion-dollar club, and is already the biggest live-action film of all time domestically for a female director, solo or otherwise, after passing up the $413 million earned by in North America by Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman and the $426 million earned by Captain Marvel, which was directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.

Barbie had no trouble staying at the top of the weekend chart, while fellow new Warners release Meg 2: The Trench appears to have beat Oppenheimer of Sunday estimates don’t change when Monday actuals come in.

Warners’ Meg 2 opened to an estimated $29 million-plus, notably behind 2018 summer success The Meg, which started off with $45 million amid a less-crowded marketplace. The sequel earned a B- CinemaScore, not uncommon for a pic laced with horror. Meg 2 grossed $12 million on Friday, including $3.2 million in Thursday previews.

Universal’s Oppenheimer, like Barbie, remained a force of nature in its third outing as it races past $500 million worldwide. In North America, it earned $28.7 million its third outing for a domestic tally of $228.6 million.

The Christopher Nolan-directed pic about the making of atomic bomb finished Sunday with an estimated global tally of $552.9 million, the top gross ever for a World War II pic ahead of Nolan’s Dunkirk ($527 million) and Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan ($482 million), not adjusted for inflation. And the three-hour film is already the fifth-best showing ever for Nolan, and one of the top biographical dramas of all time, not adjusted.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, similar to The Meg, likewise came in expectations with a five-day debut of $43.1 million, including $28 million for the three-day weekend.

The PG family movie, written by Seth Rogen, is one of the best reviewed studio films of the year and earned a stellar A CinemaScore from audiences. Mutant Mayhem opened mid-week in order to get a jump on the competition.

More to come.