After 4 Weeks at the Box Office, Barbie is Surpassed by Blue Beetle

But the Warner Bros. and Mattel movie is on track to become the highest-grossing domestic film of the year.

Is the Barbie cinematic reign over? Not quite, but after four weeks of dominance at the box office, the Warner Bros. and Mattel movie was surpassed by the Latino-centric superhero flick Blue Beetle, directed by Angel Manuel Soto with Xolo Maridueña as the protagonist and Bruna Marquezine, Adriana Barraza, Damían Alcázar, Elpidia Carrillo, Raoul Max Trujillo, Susan Sarandon, and George Lopez in the cast. The movie, also a Warner Bros. production, is the story of a college graduate whose life is turned upside down when he transforms into an alien symbiote.

Blue Beetle earned $25.4 million in the United States and Canada, surpassing Barbie’s $21.5 million in its fifth week. Overall, the Greta Gerwig movie has accumulated an impressive total of $567.3 million in North America, making it a strong contender for the highest-grossing domestic film of the year. Additionally, it has achieved notable success globally, earning just under $1.3 billion in four weeks.

Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at Comscore, told CNN that this kind of box office success, adjusted for inflation, was only achieved by about 50 films in history. The combined release of Barbie and Oppenheimer, dubbed “Barbenheimer,” has become a pop culture sensation and one that might revive the struggling movie theater industry. “Barbenheimer” had the fourth highest-grossing weekend in North America, generating a total of $302 million. “I’ve been in this game for 30 years, and the Barbie and “Barbenheimer” phenomenon is as unprecedented as it was unpredictable,” said Dergarabedian.

Sources: Los Angeles Times; CNN