2023 Domestic Box Office Wrap-Up
2023 is in the books for the Domestic Box Office. Deadline was reporting that we made $9 billion this past year, but that does not appear to be the case as the total ended up being $8.9B. If that seems low it's because it is. However, it was up 20.8% over 2022. $7.3B. We're still rebounding from the Hong Kong flu when we hit a low of $2.1B in 2020.
Yeah the box office has improved year over year for three straight years but gone are the glory days of 2015-2019. That was five consecutive $11B years. If we talking pre-COVID, you have to go back to 2005 to find a number this low for the yearly total. That year son even lower output of $8.8B.
Domestic Yearly Box Office
Year | Total Gross | %± LY | Releases | Average | #1 Release |
2023 | $8,905,146,167 | +20.8% | 587 | $15,170,606 | Barbie |
2022 | $7,369,505,492 | +64.4% | 498 | $14,798,203 | Top Gun: Maverick |
2023 Studio Market Share
Don't look now but
Universal was number one for the second straight year. After a $1.5B 2022, the Comcast crew came through with a $1.8B 2023. $574.9M of that is courtesy of
The Super Mario Bros. Movie. But still, they also released 43 movies in 2023. So they fed the streets. They had 2 of the top 5 highest grossing movies of the year: the aforementioned
Super Mario Bros. and
Oppenheimer, which was #5 with $326.1M. They had five films gross $100M. Elite production from Universal.
Disney finished in second place for the third straight year.The mouse managed to narrowly edge out the
Warner Bros. with $1.44B on 12 releases. That doesn't count their
20th Century movies. Otherwise they woulda been #1. Sorry but you don't get to juke the stats.
Disney's top release was
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 with $358.9M. They did have 3 of the top 10 highest grossers and a couple of high level flops.
Joining Universal and Disney in the billion dollar club was
Warner Bros. with $1.4B. They were the only studios with $1B in sales for the year. Of course, WB had the biggest movie of the year:
Barbie with $636.2M. They were also responsible for
The Flash, one of the biggest disappointments, with $108.1M.
There used to be "The Big Six" Major Studios. They were Universal, Disney, Paramount, WB, Columbia and 20th Century Fox. Then Disney went and bought Fox so it's now The Big Five. However, there is one studio who has a legit claim for Major status:
Lionsgate. In fact, they finished 6th in revenue with $579.7M. That was ahead of 20th Century Studios. Their 12 releases tied Disney and surpassed Paramount's 10. They had 2 of the top 15 biggest movies:
John Wick: Chapter 4 ($187.1M) and
The Hunger Games ($159.7M). The only thing stopping them from claiming "Major Studio" status is a production lot in Hollywood. For all intents and purposes, they are the 6th member of The Big Six.
Rank | Distributor | Movies | 2023 Gross | Share |
---|
1 | Universal | 43 | $1,828,684,112 | 20.47% |
2 | Disney | 12 | $1,445,018,389 | 16.17% |
3 | Warner Bros. | 16 | $1,404,371,828 | 15.72% |
4 | Sony | 27 | $983,218,036 | 11.00% |
5 | Paramount | 10 | $842,409,294 | 9.43% |
6 | Lionsgate | 12 | $579,712,250 | 6.49% |
7 | 20th Century Studios | 4 | $409,558,232 | 4.58% |
8 | Angel Studios | 4 | $219,664,985 | 2.46% |
9 | AMC Theatres | 2 | $212,873,938 | 2.38% |
10 | MGM | 7 | $211,290,548 | 2.36 |
Biggest Weekends of 2023
How bout two animated movies having bigger weekends than any MCU release? Well, that happened with
The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($146.3M) and
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ($120.6M). In fact,
TSMBM had 2 of the 9 biggest weekends.
Barbie, which had the biggest weekend with $162M, was the only other film to have 2 in the top 10. That's fitting, considering they were the two highest grossing movies of the year.
Disney was represented well in the top ten. They had
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ($118.4M) and
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ($106.1M) from the MCU, having the 4th and 5th biggest weekends, respectively. That was the only good news for the MCU, as
Guardians 3 went on to make 3x its opening weekend on its way to $358.9M. That wasn't the case for Ant-Man 3, which only made just over 2x its opening weekend, as it finished its run with $214.5M. Miniature legs from this
Ant-Man movie.
We can't forget Disney's other flops.
The Marvels had the MCU's worst ever opening with a punt $46.1M.
Then there was the $19.6M for
Wish, Disney's big 100 year anniversary commemorating animated movie. At least that flop has managed to have some staying power since that first frame flop. It's up to $62M which means it's made 3.15x that disappointing opening weekend. That's not
Elemental-level legs, which had a 5.2 multiplier after its opening $29.6M, and finished with $154.4M. Disney had some disappointments but there were successes.
Rank | Date | Movie | Weekend
Revenue | Theaters | Distributor |
---|
1 | Jul 21, 2023 | Barbie | $162,022,044 | 4,243 | Warner Bros. |
2 | Apr 7, 2023 | The Super Mario Bros. Movie | $146,361,865 | 4,343 | Universal |
3 | Jun 2, 2023 | Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse | $120,663,589 | 4,313 | Sony |
4 | May 5, 2023 | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 | $118,414,021 | 4,450 | Disney |
5 | Feb 17, 2023 | Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania | $106,109,650 | 4,345 | Disney |
6 | May 26, 2023 | The Little Mermaid | $95,578,040 | 4,320 | Disney |
7 | Jul 28, 2023 | Barbie | $93,011,602 | 4,337 | Warner Bros. |
8 | Oct 13, 2023 | TAYLOR SWIFT | THE ERAS TOUR | $92,804,678 | 3,855 | AMC Theatres |
9 | Apr 14, 2023 | The Super Mario Bros. Movie | $92,347,190 | 4,371 | Universal |
10 | Jul 21, 2023 | Oppenheimer | $82,455,420 | 3,610 | Universal |