2023 in film

In his article highlighting the best movies of 2023, Richard Brody of The New Yorker said, "Though a year in movie releases is a small and arbitrary sample size, it’s nonetheless clear that, at the moment, the art of cinema is in good shape in the United States. The overwhelming commercial success of two of the year’s strangest big-budget films, Oppenheimer and Barbie, released on the same day this summer, is an obvious sign of the vigor of the cinemascape. But the more crucial indicator of vitality preceded their release by several years—namely, the moments when these projects got the green light from their respective studios. One has blown far beyond the billion-dollar mark, and the other is approaching it, at precisely the moment that the superhero-industrial complex seems to be tottering. However, the studios are hardly the artistic center of the American cinema; they’re just one element in an environment that is fostering ongoing artistic progress. Deep-pocketed streaming services that can afford to compete with the studios—and even outbid them—have an incentive to prove themselves as purveyors not just of quantity but of quality, including by competing for awards. As for independent production companies, they can—and must—take chances on inexperienced filmmakers with big ideas and on audacious projects by acclaimed filmmakers with the name recognition to help sell them."[2]

The year saw an unusually large number of high-profile, big-budget films which subsequently under-performed at the box office, leading to the coining of the term "flopbuster."[3] Several of the most prominent tent-pole films of 2023 which under-performed include Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,[4] Shazam! Fury of the Gods,[5] Fast X,[6] The Little Mermaid,[7] Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,[8] The Flash,[9] Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,[10] Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,[11] Blue Beetle,[12] and The Marvels.[13] Many reasons have been given for the phenomenon, with one of the most common being the high budgets, low marketing due to the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes, and thus increased thresholds for breaking even and making a profit.[14]

Box office records

• Barbie became the 53rd film overall to gross $1 billion worldwide.[17]
  • It became the highest grossing comedy film, surpassing Hi Mom (2021).[18]
  • It surpassed Jia Ling's Hi, Mom (2021) to become the highest-grossing movie with a solo female director.[19][20]
  • It had the largest domestic opening weekend for a film that is not a sequel, remake, or superhero property, totaling $162 million.[21]
  • It also achieved the largest opening weekend for a female-directed film, surpassing the record set by Captain Marvel (2019).[22]
  • It had the highest opening weekend for a Margot Robbie film and a Ryan Gosling film, surpassing Suicide Squad (2016) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017) simultaneously, later becoming both actors' highest-grossing films.[22][23]
  • It surpassed The Secret Life of Pets (2016) to have the highest non-sequel July opening weekend.[22]
  • It became the fastest Warner Bros. film to reach the $1 billion mark, doing so within 17 days of release, surpassing the previous 19-day record held by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011).[24]
  • Its second weekend domestic earnings of $92 million (a 43% drop) was the largest sophomore weekend ever for a Warner Bros. film and the seventh-largest ever.[25]
  • It became the highest-grossing Warner Bros. film in the United States and Canada, surpassing The Dark Knight (2008).[26]
  • It became the highest-grossing film released by Warner Bros., surpassing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011).[27]
  • It became the first comedy film to gross over $1 billion.
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie became the first film based on a video game, the eleventh animated film, and the 52nd film overall, to gross $1 billion worldwide.[28]
  • It became Illumination's highest-grossing film, as well as the highest-grossing non-Disney animated film of all time, surpassing Minions (2015).[29]
  • It surpassed 2019's Frozen II as having the highest-grossing opening worldwide for an animated film, grossing $375.6 million.[30]
  • It achieved the highest-grossing opening for a video game adaptation worldwide, surpassing 2019's Detective Pikachu.[30]
  • The film achieved the second-highest-grossing opening weekend in the US and Canada for an animated film behind Incredibles 2 (2018), earning $146 million in a 3-day frame and $204 million in a 5-day frame over Easter weekend.[31]
  • It set the record for the biggest five-day opening weekend (for films opening on Wednesday) in North America, surpassing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009).[32]
  • It set the record for Illumination's biggest opening, surpassing Despicable Me 2 (2013).[32]
  • It became the highest-grossing video game film of all time, surpassing Warcraft (2016) in nine days by April 13.[33]
  • It became the first animated film to gross $1 billion since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2019.[34] The last animated film to do so was Frozen II.
  • In Japan, its opening weekend gross of $14.3 million became the highest for a Hollywood animated film, as well as the highest for a film from Universal, surpassing Jurassic World Dominion (2022).[34]
  • In Mexico, it became the highest-grossing film of all time with $82.4 million, surpassing Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) which made $81.16 million.[35]
• Oppenheimer became the highest-grossing World War II film of all time, surpassing Dunkirk (2017), also directed by Christopher Nolan.[36]
  • It became the highest-grossing biographical film of all time, surpassing Bohemian Rhapsody (2018).[37]
  • It is the second-highest-grossing R-rated film of all time behind Joker (2019) and the highest-grossing opening weekend for an R-rated film since the COVID-19 pandemic.[38]
  • It is the fourth-highest grossing IMAX release of all time, accumulating $184 million (20% of the film's total worldwide gross) through IMAX theaters alone, including $17 million from 30 IMAX 70 mm film screens around the world.[39][40]
  • It became Nolan's highest-grossing film in over 50 overseas markets, including Germany, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.[41]
• The Marvel Cinematic Universe became the first film franchise to gross $29 billion with the releases of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and The Marvels.
• The Spider-Man franchise became the third film franchise to gross $10 billion with the release of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
  • Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse became the highest-grossing animated film distributed by Sony Pictures, surpassing Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018).
  • It also became Sony Pictures Animation's highest-grossing film, surpassing The Smurfs (2011).[42]
  • It had the highest opening weekend for a Sony Pictures Animation film, surpassing Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015).[43]
• Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour became the highest-grossing concert film of all time.
  • It also became the highest opening for a concert film of all time, and the second-highest opening in October of all time behind Joker.[44][45]
• Transformers franchise grossed $5 billion with the release of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.
• Mission Impossible franchise grossed $4 billion with the release of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.

• May 2–September 27 – The Writers Guild of America (WGA) commences a strike against film and television studios, its first labor stoppage since 2007 and the largest production stoppage for the American entertainment industry since 2020, after the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) failed to agree on a new contract by the WGA's May 1 renewal deadline.[46][47][48] Other writers unions such as the Writers' Guild of Great Britain, Australian Writers' Guild, Writers Guild of Canada subsequently announce their support for the strike and instructed their members to refrain from working on American projects during the duration of the strike, impacted several film productions and releases.[49][50] The WGA later declared the strike over on September 27, three days after the Guild and AMPTP reached a tentative agreement.[51]
• July 14–November 9 – SAG-AFTRA commences a strike against film and television studios, after the union and the AMPTP failed to agree on a new contract after their previous agreement expired on June 30. This marks the first time that actors have initiated a labor dispute since the 1980 actors strike. With the concurrent WGA strike, this becomes the first time that actors and writers have walked out simultaneously since 1960.[52][53][54][55] Film projects produced by these American studios but made outside the U.S. may also be affected by the strike.[56][57] However, actors represented by another union, such as Equity in the UK, may instead be required to continue working on projects.[58]
• July 21 – The Barbenheimer phenomenon occurs as Greta Gerwig's Barbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer are released in theaters on the same day. The opening weekend box office was the first time two films opened with over $100m and $80m in the same weekend, the biggest box office weekend since before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the fourth-biggest weekend of all time.