'Barbillion': Barbie tops billion dollars in global ticket sales

Barbie has made history after taking more than a billion dollars in global ticket sales in what’s described as a watershed moment.

The hit film topped the billion dollar mark this weekend, according to studio estimates, meaning co-writer Greta Gerwig has broken the record for female directors.

The Margot Robbie-led and produced film has been comfortably seated in first place for three weeks and isn’t slowing down.

It crossed $400 million (£313m) in the United States and $500 million (£391m) internationally faster than any other Warner Bros movie, including the Harry Potter films.

“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 and Andrew Cripps, who oversee distribution for the studio.

In modern box office history, 53 movies have made over a billion dollars – and Barbie is now the biggest to be directed by one woman, supplanting Wonder Woman’s 821.8 million dollars (£643m).

Three movies that were co-directed by women are still ahead of Barbie, including Frozen and Captain Marvel.

At top spot is Frozen 2 with 1.45 billion dollars (£1.13bn), co-directed by Jennifer Lee.