Warner Bros., which sells movies, said that the Barbie movie has become the biggest movie of the year so far in the US and Canada.
The company said that about $155 million (£120 million) was made in the first weekend.
Universal Pictures said that Oppenheimer, another new movie that came out on Friday, made $93.7 million (£72 million) in the US.
The new features come at a time when theaters in general are having a hard time because streaming is giving them more competition.
In the UK, the theater group Vue said that because of both movies, it had its busiest weekend in four years.
Vue, which has 91 theaters in the UK and Ireland, said it had its best weekend in four years and the second best weekend in its history, based on sales. Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, is on track to be the most popular movie of 2023, beating out Super Mario Bros.
The two movies brought 500,000 people to Vue theaters. 4,000 showings of Barbie were sold out across the UK and Ireland, the company said.
Vue also said that Cambridge, Glasgow St. Enoch, Leeds Kirkstall, Bolton, Islington in London, and Bolton are some of the most popular places for Barbie.
The story of Oppenheimer is about how the first atomic bomb was made, and it stars Cillian Murphy and is directed by Christopher Nolan.
In the meantime, Barbie tells a coming-of-age story about a child’s character in which she figures out who she is and urges her friend Ken to do the same.
Both movies came out on Friday, and the fight between them was called “Barbenheimer” on social media.
Barbie, which stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, sold more tickets in its first weekend than Super Mario Bros did in its first weekend. This makes Barbie the biggest movie of 2023 so far.
Worldwide, Barbie’s launch took in $337m (£293m).
On Twitter, one person said that it had been years since she wanted to rewatch a movie in a theater, but Barbie made her want to do that again. She said it would “remain a timeless masterpiece over the years—ideas really do last forever.”
Before the movies came out, Odeon in the UK said that more than 200,000 advance tickets had been bought and that 10,000 people were expecting to see both the Barbie and Oppenheimer movies during the opening weekend.
On Friday, Vue cinema in the UK said that pre-sales for Barbie were “higher than any other blockbuster released this year.” Friday was the busiest day since the outbreak, and it was the third busiest Friday ever for the chain.
Universal Pictures said that since Friday, Oppenheimer has made £8.05 million in the UK and Ireland.
It also said that Oppenheimer was expected to do better in its first three days than Christopher Nolan’s other big hits, like the space movie Interstellar, the war movie Dunkirk, and the science fiction hit Inception.
Earlier in July, Hollywood stars left the screening of Oppenheimer early because they were on strike. One of their complaints was that artificial intelligence was getting too involved in making and writing Hollywood movies.
Universal Pictures said that the movie made $93.7 million (£75 million) in other countries, taking its total worldwide earnings to $174.2 million (£135 million).
