The Good News: 2023 is having a record-breaking box office so far. It started with the incredible billion-dollar box office of “The Super Mario Bros Movie” in the spring. Then the domestic box office for the summer of 2023 made a little bit over $4 BILLION for the 13th time ever. It’s 16% over last summer.
The Bad News: In 2022 and 2021 the biggest box office movies came out at the end of the year. This year – due to the writers and actors strikes – the end of the year is still in question.
The Good News:
Top domestic box office for 2023 (as of 9/6/2023)
- Barbie – $613 million
- The Super Mario Bros Movie – $574 million
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – $381 million
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 – $358 million
- Oppenheimer – $311 million
- The Little Mermaid – $298 million
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – $214 million
- John Wick: Chapter 4 – $187 million
- Sound of Freedom – $182 million
- Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – $174 million
Top worldwide box office for 2023 (as of 9/6/2023)
- Barbie – $1.385 billion
- The Super Mario Bros Movie – $1.358 billion
- Oppenheimer – $854 million
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 – $845 million
- Fast X – $704 million
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – $689 million
- The Little Mermaid – $569 million
- Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One – $480 million
- Elemental – $480 million
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – $476 million
The Bad News:
The top movies of 2022 have made more money than the top movies of 2023 so far.
Lifetime Domestic Box Office (as of 9/6/2023)
Top Gun: Maverick – $718 million (2022)
Avatar: The Way of Water – $684 million (2022 – although part of that box office was made in 2023)
Barbie – $613 million (2023)
The Super Mario Bros Movie – $574 million (2023)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – $453 million (2022)
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – $411 million (2022)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider: Verse – $381 million (2023)
Lifetime Worldwide Box Office (as of 9/6/2023)
Avatar: The Way of Water – $2.320 billion (2022)
Top Gun: Maverick – $1.495 billion (2022)
Barbie – $1.385 billion (2023)
The Super Mario Bros Movie – $1.358 billion (2023)
Jurassic World Dominion – $1.001 billion (2022)
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – $955 million (2022)
Minions: The Rise of Gru – $939 million (2022)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – $859 million (2022)
Oppenheimer – $854 million – (2023)
The Good News:
Walt Disney Studios (and all the studios they own) didn’t have any major hits in 2023 so far, but it has more movies on the top 10 domestic and worldwide list than any other studio. Halfway through 2023, Disney was leading the 2023 global box office with a total of $3.4 billion.
Universal is the only other studio to have more than 1 movie in the top 10 of the domestic and worldwide box office with “The Super Mario Bros Movie” dominating the spring box office of 2023 and “Oppenheimer” doing very well over the summer.
Warner Bros has the incredible box office of “Barbie” to be proud of. Currently the #1 movie of 2023 (domestic and worldwide).
Sony Pictures sequel “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” made DOUBLE the domestic box office of the first movie “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (which made $190 million domestic).
Paramount has done marginally well with their summer sequels and reboots “Scream 6”, “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”, “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts”, and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem”. “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” made it into the worldwide top 10 and was #11 in the domestic top 10. “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” was just outside both top 10 lists.
Lionsgate still has a winner with its John Wick franchise. “John Wick Chapter 4” is the most successful movie of the franchise. It made $187 domestic and $426 million worldwide which is over 4 times the domestic box office of the first movie ($43 million) and over 5 times the worldwide box office ($86 million).
The Bad News:
Walt Disney Studios has been successful when you put all their movies together, but if you look at each movie individually, they didn’t do that well. Some people consider “Elemental” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” box office disappointments.
Universal had 2 hits but also had several not so successful movies. They thought “Fast X” would rule the summer box office like the previous movies in the franchise did, but it didn’t do that well domestically ($145 million domestic total so far). Also, their other releases such as “Cocaine Bear”, “Renfield”, “The Last Voyage of the Demeter”, and “Strays” weren’t that successful.
Other than the record breaking “Barbie”, Warner Bros has been having a disappointing year. All 3 of their DC releases so far have not done well. “The Flash” made slightly more than $100 million domestically. “Blue Beetle” and “Shazam Fury of the Gods” have only made a little over $50 million domestically (although “Blue Beetle” is still in the top 5 right now). Plus, their other sequels such as “Evil Dead Rise”, “Meg 2: The Trench” and “Magic Mikes Last Dance” didn’t do very well (I believe “Meg 2: The Trench” sacrificed some movie screens so “Barbie” could keep them).
Sony has been having a somewhat disappointing year other than “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”. The biggest box office for their other movies were “Insidious: The Red Door” ($82 million domestic) and “No Hard Feelings” ($50 million domestic). Although “The Equalizer 3” just opened and is currently at the top of the box office charts with $48 million and climbing.
Paramount was hoping that Tom Cruise would win the summer box office with “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” like he did last summer with “Top Gun Maverick”, but 10 days later when “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” opened it was basically forgotten.
Lionsgate had 1 successful movie so far but their other movies did very badly. Their 2nd highest box office was “Jesus Revolution” which made only $52 million. The heavily promoted “Joy Ride” (they showed the entire movie at CinemaCon) only made $12.8 million domestically.
The Good News for the rest of 2023: The next few months have a few movies that could do well at the box office including “Taylor Swift The Eras Tour”, “The Marvels”, “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes”, and “Wonka”.
The Bad News for the rest of 2023: Postponing “Dune Part 2” to 2024 is a major loss for the 4th quarter of 2023. If the writers and/or actors strike continue for another month or two, more of the movies scheduled for 4th quarter 2023 may be pushed back to 2024. Also, as of right now I don’t think any of the upcoming 2023 movies will become the 3rd billion-dollar movie of 2023. This year needs another one to keep the momentum going and beat the total worldwide box office of 2022.
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 