'Barbie' ticket sales top $1 billion

Box-office ticket sales of the movie "Barbie" topped $1 billion in the United States and worldwide since its debut more than two weeks ago, Warner Bros. Pictures, a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery, announced on Sunday

In a statement, Warner Bros. said the movie took in $459 million from domestic theaters and another $572.1 million overseas over the weekend, for a total of $1.0315 billion. The figure was confirmed by media analytics firm Comscore.

"As distribution chiefs, we're not often rendered speechless by a film's performance, but Barbillion has blown even our most optimistic predictions out of the water," said Jeff Goldstein, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. Pictures, and Andrew Cripps, president of international distribution. Directed by Oscar-nominated writer and director Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, the movie sends Mattel Inc's iconic doll on an adventure into the real world.

"Barbie" ticket sales ranked second this year to "The Super Mario Bros," which was released in April and raked in a total of $1.357 billion at the box office.