2023 Box Office in Review: A Year Where Filmmakers Flourished and Franchises Failed.

Bonus Content: Enjoy This Premium Article on Us. 2023 in Review: A Year Where Filmmakers Flourished and Franchises Failed Universal and Barbenheimer were the biggest winners in a year where the domestic box office hit $9.05 billion At the start of 2023, Paramount’s famously candid distribution chief Chris Aronson told TheWrap that [“the gloves have to come off”]( when appraising the box office. COVID-19 could no longer be used as an excuse. Movies, studios and the franchises that hold up the theatrical business would have to either sink or swim on their own merits. With that in mind, there’s plenty of praise and hard judgments to be made from how this year’s films panned out. The changing tastes of audiences affected every studio, and even the ones that had the highest annual box office totals had some misfires and flops on their slate. At the start of the year, exhibition and studio sources predicted that the annual domestic box office would finish between $8.5 billion and $9 billion. According to Comscore, the [final weekend of 2023]( was enough to push the actual total just past that range, to $9.05 billion. That’s a 23% improvement from last year’s $7.36 billion year, but still 20% down from the $11.3 billion of 2019. Enjoying this article? Become a subscriber today. Get unlimited access to more WrapPRO stories today. [SUBSCRIBE NOW]( In some ways, 2023 felt like a changing of the guard in terms of what makes money at the box office. The superhero genre that reigned over the 2010s wasn’t entirely absent, with “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” finishing among the top 10 highest grossing films of the year. But aside from the 2020 pandemic year, this is the first year since 2011 that no superhero films hit the top 3 at the global box office. “Spider-Verse” was No. 3 on the domestic charts, but the highest-earning films globally were “Barbie” ($1.44 billion), “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ($1.36 billion) and “Oppenheimer” (a biopic record $952 million). Not exactly a victory for original filmmaking, as those movies are still based on toys, video games and U.S. history, respectively. But it does show that audiences are hungry for something different than what they’ve shown up for over the past several years. Along with “Five Nights at Freddy’s” becoming Blumhouse’s biggest box office hit ever, “Mario” signaled the full-time arrival of video games as a box office titan, with a greater share of audiences having grown up with controllers in their hands and wanting to see gaming’s biggest icons on the big screen. But whether the franchises are fresh or familiar, one thing is clear: A filmmaker’s distinct vision is more vital than ever. Whether it is Greta Gerwig’s satirical take on “Barbie,” Christopher Nolan’s signature cerebral approach in “Oppenheimer” or even James Gunn giving the struggling MCU a boost with his unique brand of humor and heart in “Guardians 3,” many of the top films on the charts got there because directors took something that audiences already knew and presented it in a way they had never seen before. So, in a year filled with surprise hits and bombs, which films fit into those categories for each studio? Let’s break down the year for each of Hollywood’s major players. Data below is partially based on estimates from The Numbers and Box Office Mojo and will be updated with new data from studios and Comscore when available. Illumination/Universal Universal: $1.93 billion domestic Top films: “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ($574.9 million domestic/$1.36 billion world wide), “Oppenheimer” ($326 million domestic/$952 million worldwide) Biggest busts: “The Exorcist: Believer” ($65.5 million domestic/$136.1 million worldwide), “Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken” ($15.7 million domestic/$45.5 million worldwide). If there’s any studio that is best prepared to weather the unpredictable nature of the post-COVID box office, it is Universal. While not all of its 21 theatrical releases this year were successful, each major section of its theatrical slate yielded a major hit that could make up for the duds, most of which carried low-to-mid-size budgets. Take animation, for example. Universal was not immune to the recent trend of non-sequel, non-major IP titles failing to launch. DreamWorks’ “Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken” did not make back its budget theatrically while Illumination’s “Migration” is hoping strong word-of-mouth can help it rebound from a very weak start overseas. On the flipside, there was “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” by far the biggest film in Illumination history with $1.36 billion worldwide, and it was a hit that has shown that Universal’s partnership with Nintendo is likely to make them a fortune. There were several horror films that didn’t work, such as “Renfield,” “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” and most notably, “The Exorcist: Believer,” which Universal paid [a pricey sum]( to secure the rights to make. Blumhouse launched two new franchises with the early-year hit “M3GAN,” and “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” the highest grossing film in studio history, both of which will be getting sequels. Universal Pictures Then there’s the summer live-action slate. As the “Fast & Furious” series nears its end, the return on investment is diminishing. “Fast X” grossed $704 million worldwide against a franchise-high $340 million budget. The planned final installment of the franchise has yet to begin production. But [“Oppenheimer”]( was the most heartening surprise of the year for any cinephile. Audiences bucked their recent trend of skipping films with [darker subject matter]( and came out to the tune of $952 million, a biopic record, against a $200 million production and marketing spend. Universal isn’t the only studio putting out films with a variety of genres and budget levels, but they had the most success doing it this year. When one film or IP fails, another steps up to make up for the lost ground. Disney: $1.9 billion domestic Top films: “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” ($359 million domestic/$845.5 million worldwide), “The Little Mermaid” ($298 million domestic/$561 million worldwide) Biggest Busts: “The Marvels” ($84.5 million domestic/$205 million worldwide), “Wish” ($61 million domestic/$176 million worldwide as of Dec. 31) If there’s a word to sum up Disney’s centennial year, it is “paradoxical.” The studio that was once the undisputed king of the film industry sat just behind Universal in domestic market share and still served as a major pillar of support for movie theaters as they continue to dig out of the hole the pandemic plunged them into. Yet Disney’s ability to spend hundreds of millions on franchise films from its IP stable and crank out billion dollar hit after billion dollar hit vanished this year, leaving its slate of tentpoles with a curdled track record. The year started off well with “Avatar: The Way of Water” legging out to $2.3 billion. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” completed James Gunn’s trilogy of big Marvel hits and Pixar’s “Elemental” won over audiences so much so that it bucked the trend of original animated movies struggling to draw a crowd. Rocket Raccoon in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (Marvel) The flops and disappointments were numerous and well-documented. “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” was left behind by the Gen Z moviegoers who are the new kingmakers of the box office. “The Little Mermaid” was neither a big bust nor a big hit, performing strongly in the U.S. but ignored by overseas audiences who turned out in droves for remakes of “The Lion King” and “Aladdin.” “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” saw its numbers plummet after its opening weekend as casual audiences weren’t interested in a film that introduced Kang the Conqueror, who must now be recast or written off after Jonathan Majors’ [conviction for assault](. Disney ended the year with a terrible November, as “The Marvels” became the first MCU film to fail to pass $100 million in domestic grosses while Disney’s anniversary film “Wish” is struggling to reach $200 million globally. While Disney still brought in a lot of revenue for theaters, exhibition sources have told TheWrap they’re concerned about how Marvel is no longer looking like the reliable ticket seller it was for over a decade. The franchise’s absence from the first half of next year’s slate due to strike-related delays is one reason why annual grosses are expected to take a drop in 2024. Disney’s plethora of post-theatrical revenue streams can help mitigate the theatrical blow, but considering how the studio was getting that revenue on top of overwhelming box office grosses before COVID-19, it can be safely said that the studio no longer has the surefire audience pull it once had and is now playing by the same rules as the rest of Hollywood. Disney rebounded from box office struggles in the 2000s when Bob Iger became CEO; and now, during Iger’s much more turbulent second go-around in that role, the studio must do so again with sequels to “Inside Out,” “Deadpool” and “Planet of the Apes” on its 2024 slate. Given the slow-moving nature of tentpole development, any longterm changes Disney’s studios are making in response to this past year won’t be seen in 2024. So it will be up to those sequels to win back audience interest through quality alone. Click below to continue reading this complimentary WrapPRO article. [CONTINUE READING]( Discover why entertainment executives and professionals rely on the WrapPRO platform daily for exclusive coverage, analysis, deeper reporting, and access to VIP events & screenings throughout the year. By subscribing to TheWrap newsletters, you acknowledge and consent to our Personal Contacts and Privacy Policy TheWrap | 2034 Armacost Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90025 [Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe](