A look at the summer 2023 movie box office
Until the pandemic hit (which disrupted everything), I used to take an annual look at how the summer movie box office did. Since 2023 is the first year that movies have been fully back to “normal” (writers’ strike notwithstanding), it seems worth looking at the movie box office again. While Labor Day usually marks the end of the summer movie season in North America, I don’t see “The Equalizer 3” (opening over the Labor Day weekend) shifting things much, so I think things are pretty much set.
Figures below are taken from Box Office Mojo, Wikipedia, and The Numbers; information is as of August 28, 2023.
The top 10 films (domestic)
Metacritic scores are included below.
Barbie , $594,801,242 (WB) (80)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, $380,997,142 (Columbia) (86)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, $358,995,815 (Disney) (64)
Oppenheimer, $299,245,010 (Universal) (88)
The Little Mermaid, $297,850,500 (Disney) (59)
Sound of Freedom, $180,587,629 (Angel Studios) (43)
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, $174,094,716 (Disney) (58)
Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One, $168,047,297 (Paramount) (81)
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, $157,066,392 (Paramount) (42)
Elemental, $151,668,191 (Disney) (58)
The top 10 films (global)
Barbie, $1,359,515,023 (80)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, $845,522,394 (64)
Oppenheimer, $777,977,010 (88)
Fast X, $704,709,660 (56)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, $687,913,244 (86)
The Little Mermaid, $568,976,530 (59)
Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One, $551,947,297 (81)
Elemental, $469,446,583 (58)
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, $438,966,392 (42)
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, $380,954,388 (58)
Observations
The hits
This summer’s biggest story has been the return of the double feature, via the two popular films “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” (or “Barbenheimer”). The former is a badly-needed hit for Warner Bros., with the Mattel doll-based film becoming the highest grossing film of the year to date. It’s also broken a few other records, including the highest-grossing film by a woman director and Warner Bros.’ highest grossing film ever (beating “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2”). It might help that "Barbie," despite being based on a toy, is a film that isn't a remake, reboot, sequel, or a superhero film, and thus seems relatively unique.
“Across the Spider-Verse” is this summer’s top-grossing animated movie, easily beating “Elemental.” Though “Elemental” film did pick up in box office despite a soft opening, and is now mildly successful (versus the fate of last year’s “Lightyear”).
This summer also stands out for the usual suspects not being the dominant film forces. While “Fast X” and “Mission: Impossible” did well, they also didn’t trounce everything else by a mile? (“Fast X” isn’t even in the top 10 domestically.)
While not in the top 10 above, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” has as of this writing about broken even. Audiences and critics consider it a success, however, as does Paramount, who’ve already greenlit a sequel.
“Sound of Freedom” is a conservative-oriented action film about fighting child trafficking that’s become a success among said audience, though it’s been panned by critics. Supposedly, part of its success came from tickets bought but unused (“pay it forward”). I assume this will just fuel more culture war nonsense, especially going into another presidential election.
The flops
“The Flash” being a flop isn’t surprising… to anyone not named David Zaslav, anyway. (Warner’s decision to shelve “Batgirl” looks even worse now.) However, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” flopping is a surprise, given the franchise’s popularity. The gigantic $300 million budget certainly didn’t help.
Other flops this summer include “Haunted Mansion” (another film based on a Disney theme park attraction) and “Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken” (from DreamWorks).
“Blue Beetle” seems reasonably liked, but isn’t exactly burning up the box office, earning $82 million (as of this writing) on a $120 million budget. At least "Barbie" will make up for "Blue Beetle"'s box office? There’s one more DC superhero film (“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” out this December) before DC launches their superhero film revamp.
Conclusion
Of course, it’d be nice if Hollywood improved the pay and benefits for the striking writers and actors behind all of their hits this summer.
Did any of you see “Barbenheimer,” or any of the other films released this summer?
Image, from left to right: "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" (Sony); "The Little Mermaid (2023) (Disney); "Fast X" (Universal)