The "Barbie" movie dominated the box office this past weekend, and you didn't need the numbers to prove it.
Many movie theaters were awash in pink as fans of the iconic doll came dressed for the occasion. People who spent their youth gleefully hoisting Dream House elevators, pushing around stylish Corvettes and keeping track of an endless array of tiny high heels were fired up about Barbie's big-screen moment.
"Everything about this movie and the toy is fun," Sheri Lambert, a marketing professor at Temple University, told CNN. "I think people are looking to escape."
"Barbie" raked in a stunning $155 million domestically over the weekend, giving the film the largest opening weekend of 2023 and the biggest-ever debut for a female director.
The combined release of "Barbie" and Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer," dubbed "Barbenheimer," has become a pop culture sensation — and one that might revive a struggling movie industry.
"Barbie" was distributed by Warner Bros., which is owned by CNN's parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.
