Receipts: 2023 Round-Up
2023 was a big year at the box office. With audiences becoming more comfortable going to theaters post-pandemic, this year’s slate of new releases brought in handsome sums, with many films breaking box office records. Though Barbie and Oppenheimer were the biggest financial and cultural hits of 2023, many more successful films also graced the screen.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie, released on April 5, saw an opening gross of $146.4 million domestically, with a total domestic gross of nearly $575 million during its theater run. Worldwide, the Super Mario Bros. Movie grossed almost $1.4 billion. Featuring the voices of fan-favorite comedian Keegan-Michael Key alongside Fred Armisen, Kevin Michael Richardson, Sebastian Maniscalco, and Khary Payton, the newest addition to the Super Mario Bros. universe captured audiences’ attention with nostalgia.
The following month, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 saw an opening domestic gross of $118.4 million, achieving a total domestic gross of close to $359 million and a worldwide gross of $845.6 million during its theater run. 2023 was a successful year for Marvel Entertainment – one of several new films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 drew viewers with names like Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, Chukwudi Iwuji, and Nico Santos. The two-and-a-half-hour epic follows Peter Quill and the Guardians, having just experienced the death of Gamora, as they defend the universe and the Guardians themselves. The Marvels was also added to the MCU this November, but saw significantly less success than Guardians in theaters.
In June, however, Marvel saw Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse hit theaters to smashing success, raking in $120.7 million domestically on its opening weekend. Across the Spider-Verse went on to gross $381 million domestically and $690.5 million worldwide. The film stood out as one of few superhero films to feature primarily actors of color in leading roles, with Shameik Moore, Daniel Kaluuya, Donald Glover, Karan Soni, Issa Rae, Luna Lauren Velez, Ayo Edebiri, Mahershala Ali, and Brian Tyree Henry voicing some of the main cast. The animated feature follows Miles Morales, a new face of Spiderman, as he traverses the multiverse and meets other Spider-People in a quest to save the multiverse and our own universe. Across the Spider-Verse breathed new life into a beloved superhero, marking the first time a Black and Puerto-Rican teen would represent Spider Man. Miles’ father, a Black police officer, and mother, a Puerto-Rican nurse, along with several Spider-People voiced by and represented as people of color, were welcomed by audiences as necessary and important representations in not only Marvel’s slate of superheroes, but the genre as a whole.
This year’s reimagining of The Little Mermaid, too, cast Halle Bailey as the first Black Ariel, though audience reception was not as resoundingly positive as Across the Spider-Verse. The Disney film saw tremendous returns at the box office – after it released on May 26th to a nearly $96 million opening weekend, The Little Mermaid achieved a domestic gross of nearly $300 million and a worldwide gross of nearly $570 million. Despite financial success and positive reviews of the film itself, Bailey’s casting led to controversy and conversation on social media. Nonetheless, it’s safe to consider The Little Mermaid a success: the film was the sixth-top-grossing of 2023, just behind the record-breaking Oppenheimer and topping Avatar: The Way of Water, the long-awaited sequel to 2009’s Avatar.
2023 was also a big year for prequels, sequels and threequels. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, John Wick: Chapter 4, Creed III, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, and Fast X were all among this year’s top 20 grossing films. With total grosses of $214.5 million, $187.1 million, $156.2 million, $146.17 million, and $146.12 million, respectively, these films showed an audience appetite for sentimentality.
Many will remember 2023 as the year of “Barbenheimer,” but even beyond that record-breaking pair of films, it was a great year in theaters. New releases sparked conversation around casting and representation, gave platforms to new stories and unique voices, and broke even pre-pandemic records. After a tumultuous few years for the very concept of the public big screen, a varied and exciting slate of films drew audiences in droves, and pointed towards a promising future for our beloved movie theaters.