Hello everyone,
WEEKEND DOMESTIC BOX OFFICE: Two movies INCREASED their weekend box office numbers from the previous weekend but only 1 was a Warner Bros movie. “Wonka” rose to #1 for the final weekend of 2023 with $22.47 (3-day) and approx. $29 million ($4 day). “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” sunk to #2 with $18.271 (3-day) and approx. $23.5 (4-day). “Migration” rose approx. 37% and rose to #3 for the 4-day (since “The Color Purple” opened on Christmas Day – it was #3 for the 3-day last week). “The Color Purple” which made $18.1 million on its opening day on Christmas day made $11.74 million (3-day) and $14.35 (4-day).
2023 TOTAL BOX OFFICE: The 2023 total domestic box office crossed $9 BILLION (according to some estimates) for the first time since the pandemic started in 2019. There can only be estimates because Netflix doesn’t announce their official box office numbers (without Netflix the total box of 2023 is approx. $8.905 billion). This is over 20% higher than the total domestic box office of 2022 ($7.37 billion). However, if you look at the numbers more closely the 2023 total domestic box office actually ended up being about the same as the 2022 box office. The only difference is that there were almost 100 more movies released in 2023. If you look at the estimated per movie average: 2022 average is about $14.8 million and 2023 is about $15.2 million. The average movie only made about $400 thousand more.
Also, if you look at the 2022 and the 2023 top box office combined, 2023 movies are only 3 of the top 10 movies:
#1 for 2022 – Top Gun Maverick – $718 million
#1 for 2023 – Barbie – $636 million
#2 for 2023 – The Super Mario Bros Movie – $574 million
#2 for 2022 – Black Panther Wakanda Forever – $436 million (just the total for 2022 box office – made another $17 million in 2023)
#3 for 2022 – Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – $411 million
#4 for 2022 – Avatar The Way of Water – $401 million (just the total for 2022 box office – made another $283 million in 2023)
#3 for 2023 – Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse – $381 million
#5 for 2022 – Jurassic World Dominion – $376 million
#6 for 2022 – Minions Rise of Gru – $369.6 million
#7 for 2022 – The Batman – $369.3 million
One more note: If you remove the movies released in 2022 from the 2023 total box office total (like “Black Panther Wakanda Forever”, “Avatar Way of Water”, “Puss in Boots”, etc) the number of movies in 2022 is only about 50 less than the movies in 2023 and the total domestic box office is approx. $7.52 billion in 2022 and approx. $8.4 billion in 2023 which is only approx. 12% higher.
WORLDWIDE WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: The 3 Warner Bros releases in Dec of 2023 have made a worldwide total of that is close to $700 million. This is mostly due to “Wonka” which is now close to $385 million worldwide. “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” is a little over $255 million worldwide. “The Color Purple” hasn’t been released in most foreign countries yet so it’s worldwide total is the same as the domestic total $47 million. Also this past weekend the Disney animated movie “Wish” saw its international numbers rise. It’s international is now $115 million which is almost twice the domestic total of $61 million.
2023 WORLDWIDE TOTAL BOX OFFICE: The numbers for the worldwide box office total won’t be released for a few days but today the studios announced their worldwide totals and – for the first time since 2016 – Disney DID NOT have the biggest box office of the year. Universal had a total worldwide box office total of $4.91 billion and Disney had an estimated total of $4.83. There’s a variety of reasons why Universal came out on top this year. Universal had 24 movie releases in 2023 while Disney had 17. The Disney/Marvel release “The Marvels” had the lowest box office in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Universal/Dreamworks movie “Trolls Band Together” made approx. $21 million more than the Disney animated movie “Wish”. However, the one that most people point to is the $1.36 BILLION “The Super Mario Bros Movie” while Disney did not have a movie that made over $1 billion this year (if you don’t count “Avatar The Way of Water” which made over $1 billion in 2023 but was released in 2022).
Warner Bros was the 3rd top grossing studio of the year with $3.84 billion mostly thanks to the #1 movie of the year “Barbie”. Sony was 4th with $2.09 led by “Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse”. Paramount was 5th with $2.03 billion led by “Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol Part 1” and “Transformers Rise of the Beasts”. Also, Lionsgate made over $1 billion this year for the first time in 5 years thanks to “John Wick Chapter 4” which just missed being in the top 10 of 2023 and “The Hunger Games The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” which just missed being in the top 15 of 2023.
LITTLE BIT OF HUMOR:
Since the type is that tiny, does it matter that it doesn’t list an actual name or publication??????
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 