Barbie is shaping up to 2023's biggest box office hit, grossing a bigger-than-expected $162 million in the U.S. during its opening weekend.
After flops like Shazam! Fury of the Gods and The Flash, this is good news for Warner Bros., a studio which is struggling to produce the sort of guaranteed hits it was once known for. In the case of the Scarlet Speedster's first big screen solo outing, it's destined to be remembered as Warner Bros.' biggest flop in its 100-year history.
With a production budget of over $200 million and at least another $100 million on top of that for marketing, a $267 million global haul is an unmitigated disaster.
However, as Barbie closes in on $400 million worldwide just days after opening, box office analyst David Herrin tells The Town with Matthew Belloni that there's a chance the movie will be a big enough hit to offset what Warner Bros. has lost on The Flash.
"It's entirely possible," he says, "that Barbie could make so much that it negates all of the losses for The Flash."
Of course, this isn't exactly a win for the beleaguered studio as it essentially means the profit generated by Barbie is now gone. Paying themselves back for what they lost making a movie described by James Gunn as the "greatest superhero movie ever made" has got to hurt, especially when the company expected it to be one of 2023's biggest hits.
We concluded our review of The Flash by saying, "Far from the greatest superhero movie ever made and not quite among the worst, The Flash is still another mediocre effort from the DCEU with appalling VFX and a messy story that the excellent Michael Keaton and Sasha Calle alone are unable to save."
Have you watched Barbie yet?
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